Thursday 3rd May 2007

Viglen Computer Cluster Reigns Supreme at Queen Mary, University of London

Lord Alan Sugar, previously Chairman of Viglen Ltd, has unveiled a high-performance computer cluster at Queen Mary, University of London. In the month that marks Lord Alan’s 25th anniversary in the UK computer market, Lord Alan opened the cluster — a high performance computing suite which will play a leading role in international scientific research — at the College’s Mile End campus.
 
The cluster has been developed by Queen Mary, University of London and Viglen, which specialises in computers and IT solutions. The cluster will enable the College to team up with international research projects and experiments, including important research into finding a cure for Malaria and searching for the secrets of matter.
 
One of the cluster's major roles will involve joining with other clusters in the UK and overseas to form a computing Grid of over 100,000 processors. This Grid will analyse the deluge of data expected from the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, which opens at CERN in Switzerland later this year. The particle physicists and computer scientists organising these clusters in the UK are part of the GridPP project.
 
But particle physics is just part of the work for the cluster at Queen Mary. Through its connection to the Grid, it’s available for use by the whole range of scientists, from biomedical researchers searching for better drugs for avian flu, to engineers designing fusion reactors.
 
The new cluster has an impressive 182 terabytes of storage. This means:

• It is 10 billion times faster than the original Amstrad computer
• It can process in one second what would have taken the first Amstrad computer 317 years
• It has the amount of memory required for 60 million MP3 music files
• It has the storage capacity of five miles worth of personal MP3 players laid out end-to-end

Lord Alan Sugar said: “Whilst many people know me forThe Apprentice, my staff and I continue to work hard to be at the cutting edge of Industry. At Viglen we have been a leading provider of IT solutions to Higher Education for the last three decades and the development of this computer at Queen Mary, University of London, will hopefully enable major scientific breakthroughs in years to come.”
 
Dr Alex Martin who manages the cluster, at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “Computing has always been useful in science but more and more it is becoming essential. Clusters like this one make it easier and faster to obtain results in many scientific fields and for the new generation of particle physics experiments that we work with, there would be no other way to deal with the data being produced.”
 
Viglen Chief Executive, Bordan Tkachuk observes: “Viglen shares the same desire for excellence as Queen Mary, University of London. In tailoring our technology to deliver this High Performance Cluster, Viglen is responding to new ways of working with innovative and flexible solutions. We have been eagerly awaiting the opening of the cluster to ensure Queen Mary possesses all the processing power it needs to maintain its position at the forefront of physics research and hope that our good working relationship with the University will remain for many years to come.”
 

Notes to Editors
 
The e-Science Cluster at Queen Mary, University of London
 
The Department of Physics at Queen Mary has partnered with CERN , the European particle physics laboratory in Switzerland and academic institutions worldwide to play a leading role in investigating the fundamental properties of matter. Queen Mary is involved with the ATLAS experiment, a cathedral-sized detector that will produce petabytes of data in its search for the secrets of the universe, requiring a large-scale array of high-performance processors and necessitating that Queen Mary select a partner to assist in the development of its computing cluster.
 
Viglen Ltd, specialists in the provision of high-end integrated IT solutions to higher education, was able to respond to new ways of working, with innovative and flexible solutions. As a significant partner in the development of the e-Science High Throughput Cluster at Queen Mary, Viglen has been able to assist in maintaining the Department of Physics’ position at the forefront of particle physics.
 
The College recently invested in expanding the cluster with 280 custom-built Viglen dual dual-core Opteron Processor 2GHz servers, each with 2Gb SDRAM supplied in a 1u rack-mountable configuration and dual Gigabit ethernet. They are housed in the cluster's dedicated temperature controlled network room in the College’s Walter Besant Building.
 
The system is entirely scaleable and can easily accept extra clusters of machines and can plug-in to external Grids of processors outside the College - offering the potential of phenomenal combined power.
 
Queen Mary, University of London
 
Queen Mary is one of the leading colleges in the federal University of London, with over 12,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and an academic and support staff of around 2,600.
 
Queen Mary is a research focussed higher education institution, with over 80 per cent of research staff working in departments where research is of international or national excellence (RAE 2001). It has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 100 countries.
 
Viglen Ltd.
 
Viglen has been, and continues to be, a leading British provider of cutting edge IT solutions to Higher Education. Established over 30 years ago, Viglen has built a reputation for innovation, technical expertise and responsive partnership, combining a heritage and pedigree unequalled.
 
Viglen today is one of the fastest-growing education-specific IT solutions organisations, offering a totally integrated, end-to-end ICT service. Viglen’s considerable accreditations can be supplied upon application.