University of Bristol installs powerful, greenest supercomputer

The UK government funded a total of £225m (US$287m) in Isambard-AI last November to make the country a leader in AI and harness its capabilities for drug discovery and climate research.

The University of Bristol installed the first phase of the most powerful and greenest supercomputer Isambard-AI earlier this month and full installation is expected to complete later this summer. It is the third fastest supercomputer in the UK and 128th in the world. The installation saw 168 graphics processing units (GPUs) come online and capable of 7.4 petaflops (or 7 quadrillion calculations per second).

Simon McIntosh-Smith, director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing at the University of Bristol, said: “Assuming there are eight billion people on Earth, and everyone performed one calculation per second, it would take 2.3 years for all eight billion people, working 24/7, 365 days a year, to do what Isambard-AI phase one could do in one second…When the remaining 5,280 GPUs arrive at the University’s National Composites Centre (NCC) later in the summer, it will increase the performance by a factor of 32," as reported by the Chemical Engineer.

The system uses the latest efficient processors for AI – NVIDIA’S Grace-Hopper GPU – and direct liquid cooling which is more energy efficient than air cooling.

University of Bristol spokesperson said, “The direct liquid cooling and relatively high wastewater temperatures, along with our temperate local climate, mean the system can use free air cooling 98% of the time, and will only need to use chillers 2% of the time."

Bristol Hosts Swiss-British Summit

The university recently hosted the Synthetic and Engineering Biology British-Swiss Summit. The event focussed on understanding the opportunities presented by engineering biology technologies to drive innovation in healthcare.

It was organised in collaboration with the Swiss Business Hub UK & Ireland, the Bioindustry Association and Lucideon, and aimed to bring together academic thought leaders and representatives from the pharmaceutical and the life industries.

His Excellency Markus Leitner, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United Kingdom said, “The United Kingdom and Switzerland are uniquely placed to work together on this frontier of scientific discovery and technological innovation. Bringing together scientists, industry leaders and start-up entrepreneurs from both countries will foster the exchange of ideas, forge new partnerships, and catalyse new initiatives that will shape the future of synthetic and engineering biology.”

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