ARCHER2 services contracts awarded to EPCC

26 March 2020

EPCC has been awarded contracts to run the Service Provision and Computational Science and Engineering services for ARCHER2, the next UK National Supercomputing Service. 

ARCHER2 will represent a significant step forward in capability for the UK’s science community, with the £79 million service among the fastest CPU-based systems in the world. It will be hosted by EPCC at our recently expanded Advanced Computing Facility (ACF), a state-of-the-art home for this vital new service.

The Service Provision contract (SP) provides essential system maintenance and upgrades, it is also the access point for users of the ARCHER2 system. The Computational Science and Engineering contract (CSE) supports users with their individual projects as well as providing ongoing help, software support and development. These are both integral parts of the full ARCHER2 service.

EPCC is exceptionally proud to have been selected as the SP and CSE provider. For the past 30 years we have hosted novel computing services and during that time we have had the privilege of working closely with the incredible community of people that use them. The UK community has a rich heritage of conducting breakthroughs thanks to the UK National Supercomputing Service. As we enter our fourth decade, I look forward to the many future breakthroughs that ARCHER2 will deliver. Ultimately it’s the community of users who make a service successful and the team here at EPCC look forward to supporting all of them on the new ARCHER2 system.

Prof. Mark Parsons EPCC Director

I and my team are honoured to have been selected to continue to support HPC users across the UK. We are excited to deliver the new ARCHER2 Service and facilitate the ongoing world-class computational research.

Dr Alan D Simpson ARCHER2 Service Director, EPCC Technical Director

The award of the contracts to provide these crucial services is a major milestone in commissioning the ARCHER2 service, and providing a step-change in capability for the UK’s digital research community. The people and skills that make advanced computational science possible are one of the most important parts of our computational science infrastructure.

“The skilled individuals supported by this award will enable the UK to use the supercomputer to its full potential. They will provide a range of services, from the complex engineering tasks needed to keep a supercomputer running to advanced scientific programming, co-developing simulation codes with users. UKRI is delighted to continue its long-standing relationship with the team in Edinburgh, one of the UK’s leading centres of excellence in high performance computing.”

Dr James Hetherington UKRI Director of Digital Research Infrastructure

The project is being delivered and supported by UKRI’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).