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The world's most powerful telescope - the new Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - is likely to need the world's biggest computer to handle the incredible amount of data it will produce - and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is working out how to do it without breaking the bank.

ICRAR - a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia - is working with the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre (CADC) to cost a new computer system to handle everything the SKA needs for the best price.

The $2 billion SKA project will generate one exabyte - more than 15 million iPods - of raw data a day which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to store using currently available technology.

The result of the Australian and New Zealand bid to host the SKA - in competition with a group of southern African countries - is expected in April.

SKA construction is due to start in 2016.

Media references

Professor Andreas Wicenec (Head of Computing | ICRAR  (+61 4) 31 832 602
Kirsten Gottschalk (Media Contact | ICRAR)  (+61 8)  6488 7771  /  (+61 4) 38 361 876
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783