Maxwell, the University's high performance computing (HPC), has just had a £750,000 upgrade!
About Maxwell
The Maxwell supercomputer utilises parallel processing techniques for solving large and complex computational problems. Managed by Digital Research Services, this scientific research tool is available to staff, authorised research students, and external partners.
Maxwell can be used in many disciplines including:
- Bioinformatics for the analysis of the next generation sequencing data, processing imaging data collected from MRI Scans, processing anonymised genetic data looking at treatment response to oesophageal cancer;
- Environmental modelling, simulating the effect land use has on greenhouse gas emissions;
- Engineering where it is used to model the turbulence and stress in wind turbines.
About the upgrade
The upgraded Maxwell’s computational power is equivalent to over 1200 desktop PCs working in tandem. Now with over one Petabyte of tiered storage, the upgrade will allow the University to accommodate Big Data projects, reduce wait times, maximise run times, and improve scheduling.
And for first time, Maxwell incorporates GPU processors – ideally suited to solving problems in AI and Deep Learning.
The University aims to expand and tailor the HPC service in response to changing demand, underpinning current and future research, on an annual basis.
The HPC upgrade is a joint initiative between the University of Aberdeen and the newly established National Decommissioning Centre (NDC).
Want to find out more? Come along to a training session!
We would like to offer existing and new users the opportunity to attend a ‘live’ training session.
The session will include an introduction to the structure of the HPC, and opportunity for hands-on (how to log-on, submit jobs, etc.), and will also include a Unix summary slide of basic commands typically used – essentially going through everything needed to get going with the new HPC.
Interested? Follow the links below to register for one of our sessions via the Course Booking System.
Note that if you previously responded to an Outlook meeting invitation for HPC training, on either date, you do not need to re-register via the Course Booking System.
- Monday 21 October, 09:00-12:00, Edward Wright F81
- Wednesday 30 October, 11:00-13:00, Edward Wright F81
Places are limited so please register for one session only.
Visit our web pages
Find out more about the Maxwell HPC - including access information, policies, and answers to FAQs - on our dedicated web pages.
Author: Digital Research Services Team