Portsmouth Joins Cosmos Supercomputer Consortium

5 October 2001
News from the University, University of Portsmouth

Portsmouth Joins Cosmos Supercomputer Consortium

The Relativity & Cosmology Group at University of Portsmouth is joining with cosmology groups at Cambridge and Sussex Universities and Imperial College London in a new supercomputer consortium. COSMOS II, the new-generation National Cosmology Supercomputer, will be housed at the Cambridge group, which is headed by Stephen Hawking. The other partners own a share of COSMOS II, with Portsmouth holding 15%.

The huge power of the new supercomputer is needed to deal with the vast amount of observational data coming from satellites, telescopes and other detectors. This data contains vital clues about the origin of the Universe, its structure and its future. Cosmologists develop theories to explain the data, and to make new predictions that can be tested via observations. COSMOS II will significantly enhance the computing power of cosmologists in Britain.

The new supercomputer will be built during 2002. It is funded by SRIF - the Science Research Infrastructure Fund.

The University of Portsmouth received Ł2 million from SRIF, and Ł300k of this is earmarked for the Relativity & Cosmology Group. This money will fund the 15% share of COSMOS II, as well as a new high-performance multi-processor located at Portsmouth. The multi-processor is like a small version of COSMOS II, and will be used to test and prepare codes before they are run on COSMOS II. However, it will also be powerful enough to solve many of the problems that are being tackled by theorists at Portsmouth.

About University of Portsmouth, UK

University of Portsmouth has a record of 125 years of higher education. Since its foundation in 1869, the institution has grown considerably, linking up with other educational establishments to build its reputation as a centre of academic excellence. Since the award of the first degree in 1900, the University of Portsmouth has maintained its commitment to promoting excellence in teaching research and scholarship across a wide range of disciplines.

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