Thursday, 2 August 2012

A powerful new supercomputer that will give researchers unprecedented access to parallel processing and data-intensive computing will be launched at The University of Western Australia tomorrow - 50 years after UWA acquired the state's first digital computer.

Federal Minister for Science and Research Chris Evans and WA Minister for Science and Innovation John Day will jointly launch the new supercomputer, which will make Perth one of the world's top supercomputing centres by next year.

It forms part of the Pawsey project, an $80 million Federal Government Super Science initiative to help bolster Australia's role in building the world's biggest radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - in WA.  The State Government has also contributed significant funding to support iVEC's management of supercomputing infrastructure in WA.

UWA, CSIRO, Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University are partners in a joint venture called iVEC to provide advanced computing services to scientists, industry and government.

Some staff members involved with the installation and use of the first computer, which arrived at UWA in September 1962, will attend the launch.

WHAT: Launch of IVEC@UWA Supercomputer.

WHERE: Physics Building Foyer, The University of Western Australia.

WHEN: Friday 3 August at 10.00am.

Media references

Associate Professor Paul Bourke (Director, iVEC@UWA)  (+61 8)  6488 8097
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783

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