Met Office (UK)
London
United Kingdom
IBM to provide next Met Office supercomputer
4 August, 2008 - The UK Met Office has signed a contract with IBM (NYSE: IBM) for its next generation supercomputer that will underpin
its weather forecast and climate research programmes until 2013.
The extra computing power means the Met Office can achieve even more accurate and detailed short range weather forecasts
through high-resolution computer simulations. It will allow greater use of ensembles - multiple simultaneous forecasts -
which means it will be possible to give earlier warning of low probability, high impact weather. The system will also be
used to progress research on climate change and its impacts on society and the economy.
John Hirst, Met Office Chief Executive said: "In a world where the effect of extreme weather events is becoming more
severe and the potential impact of global warming is becoming ever more apparent, the Met Office plays an increasingly
vital role in researching and forecasting these events. The new supercomputer is an important step in delivering our
strategic targets."
A discrete part of the system will be used for collaborative scientific research supported by both the Natural
Environment Research Council and Met Office.
The new IBM supercomputer is projected to become the second most powerful system in the UK and within the top 20 most
powerful systems in the world1. It is capable of a peak performance of 125 trillion floating point operations per
second. By 2011, the total system is anticipated to have a total peak performance approaching 1 PetaFlop - equivalent to
over 100,000 PCs and over 30 times more powerful than what is in place today. As part of the agreement, IBM will also
provide a mid-life system upgrade, support and maintenance services during the five-year contract.
Defence Minister, Derek Twigg MP, said: "The Met Office provides essential services to the nation, saving lives and
protecting property through its weather forecasts and climate advice. I am very pleased to approve the replacement of
the Met Office's supercomputer, which will enable it to take advantage of latest technology and thereby deliver enhanced
services to the public and both Government and commercial customers."
Dave Kay, IBM Vice President Systems and Technology Group, said: "It is testament to the performance and reliability of
IBM's System p - the world's leading platform for weather forecasting - and also a tribute to IBM's scientists and
researchers, who have helped combine meteorology with computer science, that we have been selected to help the Met
Office provide critical information, 24 hours a day."
NOTES
The Met Office is a trading fund within the MoD and is the UK's National Weather Service, providing world-renowned
scientific excellence in weather, climate and environmental forecasts and severe weather warnings for the protection of
life and property.
The Met Office is a global provider of environment services related to the weather, ocean and climate for a range of
users. These include the general public, the Government, research institutes, broadcasters and online media, civil
aviation and many other industry sectors in the UK and around the world. The Met Office has made significant
improvements to weather services in recent years and the Met Office Hadley Centre has provided Defra with information
and advice on climate change for many years.
About IBM
For more information about High Performance Computing from IBM, please visit http://www.ibm.com/deepcomputing
1 As defined by where this new supercomputer would appear in the Top 500 Supercomputer list, published in June 2008.
Full details are available at: http://www.top500.org
Initially the system will have computing power roughly equivalent to 20,000 high-end PCs and is armed with 13TB of
memory and over 500TB of disk storage
A four-machine solution will be installed with a main production system; an identical research/production backup system;
a separate system for facilitating external collaborations and a minimal system for test purposes.
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