A brief history of EPCC

Back in the 1980s, an interest in Parallel Computing developed at The University of Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre was born through the ideas of three people - David Wallace, Stuart Pawley, and Ken Bowler - in the, then, Department of Physics. 

Thanks to Roland Ibbett in Computer Science and Richard Field in the University's Computer Services, computers at Edinburgh soon followed and the first two ICL Distributed Array Processors (DAPs) enabled researchers in Physics to publish 186 computational science papers in six years. This was a truly remarkable feat, especially when you remember that these computers had less performance and memory than today's mobile phones. 

In September 1990, the University of Edinburgh formally inaugurated Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre as a technology transfer centre with a mission to promote parallel computing across industry and academia. This was made possible with funding from the UK Government Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). 

When the Government funding ran out, we went through our first major convulsion, spinning out two companies: Quadstone Ltd (data mining) and Paramics Ltd (traffic simulation). With the incumbent management team leaving to head these new companies, Richard Kenway and Arthur Trew took over the reins. Two major successes saved us at this point, when we won our first National HPC Service provision contract (for the Cray T3D service), and our first large European Commission (EC) project (the HPCN-TTN project). 

Without Government  funding, we had to work very hard to attract new industry funding. Thanks to our first Chairperson Jeff Collins and our Director Professor Arthur Trew we rapidly gained a business-oriented culture, and we learned how to deliver well-run projects - whether for academia or industry - during this period. Shortening our name to EPCC, we stuck by the founding vision and used an entrepreneurial approach to rapidly grow our business. We learned how to deliver projects professionally to time and budget. 

This was a decade of considerable growth for EPCC—we successfully secured the UK Government's new e-Science funding, launched our MSc programme in HPC, and became a PRACE Advanced Training Centre. We won the next UK National Supercomputing Service contract—HPCx—cementing our position as a safe pair of hands with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The HECTOR and ARCHER National Supercomputing Services followed.

Under the leadership of EPCC Director Professor Arthur Trew, we were recognised as the finest example of commercialising the science base in Scotland and we became one of the top centres for computational science in Europe. 

In 2004 we refitted a University building to create the Advanced Computing Facility (ACF) at Bush Estate. The ACF is now home to all the major systems managed by EPCC. Today it is one of the most innovative and efficient facilities of its kind anywhere in the world.

2017

EPCC expands its activities to become a key player in the data-focused, £1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

EPCC continues to go from strength to strength. 

EPCC now has around 150 staff supporting our work with industry and academia, and in teaching our 160 MSc and PhD students. We operate a range of systems and services, with a wide spread of national and international partnerships with academia and industry. These continue to grow in new directions.

We continue to contribute to the City Region Deal, and its Data-Driven Innovation initiative, through the Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF). The EIDF is now a well-established Regional Cloud Research Environment. Its capabilities are regularly reviewed to ensure it can meet the growing needs of regional innovation and research. 

As the first National Supercomputing Centre, we look forward to a new partnership with the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to continue to deliver our mission:

To accelerate the effective exploitation of novel computing throughout industry, academia and commerce.