WIREDGOV

HPC Wales has built a state-of-the-art high performance computing capability, technology, infrastructure and facilities on a pan-Wales, pan-sector basis across Universities  and business centres in Wales.

It has given  Welsh businesses and universities involved in commercially-focussed research access to advanced and evolving computing technology.

Infrastructure installations at both South Wales hubs – Cardiff and Swansea - are now complete, providing  an additional resource for businesses and researchers across Wales.

Speaking recently at the launch of the latest hub based at Swansea’s Dylan Thomas Centre, Economy Minister Edwina Hart described it as a strategic investment in one of the key supporting infrastructures of a modern economy.

The Minister said: 

“Wales is now looking to the future and embracing and forging expertise in new industries - industries which base their strengths and competitive advantages on increased scientific and technological understanding.  

“These new industries are driving the need for more technical knowledge and Wales is rising to the challenge and meeting this need through the creation of its own knowledge economy.

“Through our deeper understanding of science and engineering and new ways of processing and interpreting huge volumes of data we will promote the discovery of new solutions to many of the emerging 21st Century problems.  

“Many of these new advances will only be possible with a huge expansion of computational capacity, and HPC Wales offers such a capacity.”

The Minister added that HPC Wales, which has been backed by the Welsh Government including the European Regional Development Fund, is unique in the UK as it is not just aimed at academic research but will also deliver more commercially focussed research that can generate positive economic impacts to boost the Welsh economy.

A key HPC Wales activity is working with industry, SMEs and larger companies in order to develop new intellectual property, services and products which can help them compete and win new business.

The HPC Wales Network works with HPC facilities in the UK as well as the global HPC network. It has given Wales the largest national distributed supercomputing network in the UK, third largest supercomputing network in the UK and one of the top 100 global networks.