Supercomputer switched on

Australia’s most powerful supercomputer, named after the Japanese god of thunder, lightning and storms, Raijin, can perform the same number of calculations in one hour that would take seven billion people armed with calculators 20 years.

Supported with a $50 million grant under the Super Science Initiative through the Australian Research Council (ARC), the supercomputer forms the centrepiece of the new National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) high-performance computing centre at Australian National University (ANU).

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, launched the new NCI facility in Canberra yesterday, joined by ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) CEO Dr Rob Vertessy, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science Professor Andy Pitman, CEO of Geoscience Australia Dr Chris Pigram, and local member for Fraser Andrew Leigh.

The supercomputer is the largest in Australia and will enable researchers to process vast volumes of data that would otherwise take years to complete and simply not be possible using desktop computers.

“Advanced computational methods form an increasingly essential component of high-impact research, in many cases underpinning discoveries that cannot be achieved by other means, as well as underpinning the platform with which to sustain innovation at an internationally competitive level,” said Professor Lindsay Botten, Director of the NCI.

Capable of running at 1.2 petaflops (a measure of computer processing speed) when performing at its peak, Raijin can complete 170,000 calculations for every human on Earth, every second.

The computer’s speed will enable researchers to run complex models. For example, it will potentially help work into understanding the forces that bind atoms together, to ‘supercharge’ the photosynthesis of virtual crops or to understand the dynamics of the world’s oceans and their impact on the climate.

The supercomputer is the result of the close collaboration between the NCI and Fujitsu.

The operation of the NCI will be sustained through co-investment by a number of partner organisations including ANU, CSIRO, the BoM, Geoscience Australia and other research-intensive universities supported by the ARC, the total of which amounts to a further $50 million over four years.

Launching the facilities, Minister Carr said the solutions to the big problems faced by Australia depend on scientists having the advanced digital tools to carry out their ground-breaking work.

“It keeps Australia at the forefront of global innovation and opens up new horizons for science and research,” he said.