Cambridge University has unveiled the world's "greenest" supercomputer.
Wilkes - named after British computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.
The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.
Maurice Wilkes, who died in 2010, was the man behind EDSAC, the world's first electronic digital stored-program computer come into general use - it was built at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in 1949.
'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled at Cambridge University
13 December 2013
BBC News
Being energy-efficient as well as just powerful is the big challenge in supercomputing, the university said
A supercomputer that is the "greenest of its kind" has been built at Cambridge University.
Wilkes - named after computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.
The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.
While it is some way off being the most powerful in the world - it ranks at 166th - Wilkes was built to be efficient rather than powerful.
"Energy-efficiency is the biggest single challenge in supercomputing today and our new system makes an important step forward in this regard," said Dr Paul Calleja, director of the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service.
The new computer is named after Maurice Wilkes, right
An artist's impression shows the vast array of telescopes that will comprise the SKA
It has an energy efficiency of 3,361 Mega-flops per watt. In simple terms, "flops" (floating point operations per second) is a measure of how much computing a machine can handle at once.
Wilkes comes in 2nd place on the Green 500, a ranking of the most energy-efficient computers. However the leading machine, built by a team in Tokyo, requires an oil-cooling system, whereas Wilkes is cooled using air, making it the most efficient of its kind.
Maurice Wilkes was the man behind EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), the first programmable computer to come into general use - it was built in 1949.
A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park (which used to be the home of Britain's WWII Enigma and Lorenz codebreakers) are currently in the process of restoring EDSAC to working order.
EDSAC was the world's first electronic digital stored-program computer to go into regular service when it was built at Cambridge University in 1949. It was in use until 1958. A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, are currently restoring EDSAC to working order
BBC News - 'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled at Cambridge University
Wilkes - named after British computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.
The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.
Maurice Wilkes, who died in 2010, was the man behind EDSAC, the world's first electronic digital stored-program computer come into general use - it was built at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in 1949.
'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled at Cambridge University
13 December 2013
BBC News
Being energy-efficient as well as just powerful is the big challenge in supercomputing, the university said
A supercomputer that is the "greenest of its kind" has been built at Cambridge University.
Wilkes - named after computing pioneer Maurice Wilkes - will be used for development of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
When complete the SKA will be the biggest radio telescope ever made.
The computer's power is the equivalent of 4,000 typical desktop computers all working together, the university said.
While it is some way off being the most powerful in the world - it ranks at 166th - Wilkes was built to be efficient rather than powerful.
"Energy-efficiency is the biggest single challenge in supercomputing today and our new system makes an important step forward in this regard," said Dr Paul Calleja, director of the Cambridge High Performance Computing Service.
The new computer is named after Maurice Wilkes, right
An artist's impression shows the vast array of telescopes that will comprise the SKA
It has an energy efficiency of 3,361 Mega-flops per watt. In simple terms, "flops" (floating point operations per second) is a measure of how much computing a machine can handle at once.
Wilkes comes in 2nd place on the Green 500, a ranking of the most energy-efficient computers. However the leading machine, built by a team in Tokyo, requires an oil-cooling system, whereas Wilkes is cooled using air, making it the most efficient of its kind.
Maurice Wilkes was the man behind EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), the first programmable computer to come into general use - it was built in 1949.
A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park (which used to be the home of Britain's WWII Enigma and Lorenz codebreakers) are currently in the process of restoring EDSAC to working order.
EDSAC was the world's first electronic digital stored-program computer to go into regular service when it was built at Cambridge University in 1949. It was in use until 1958. A team at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, are currently restoring EDSAC to working order
BBC News - 'Greenest' supercomputer unveiled at Cambridge University
Last edited: