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    UK's most powerful supercomputer comes online at the University of Bristol
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    UK’s most powerful supercomputer comes online at the University of Bristol

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    1. ConsciousStop on

      https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/july/isambard-launch.html

      ..

      ## Facts about Isambard-AI

      – The 11st fastest supercomputer in the world and 9th for public supercomputing
      – 100,000 times faster than a typical laptop
      – Isambard-AI’s internal network speed is 200Gbps, or 200,000Mbps, compared to the average home broadband speed of about 100Mbps, making Isambard-AI’s internal network 2,000 times faster
      – An average phone in the UK has 128 or 256 GBytes of storage, meaning Isambard-AI has about 100,000-200,000 times more storage
      – The whole project took under two years from initial scoping to coming online
      – Isambard-AI weighs about 150 tonnes, the same as 25 African elephants!
      – Isambard-AI has more computing power than all other UK supercomputers combined
      – Isambard AI’s modular construction approach resulted in a shorter on-site construction time. This led to a reduction in carbon emissions of circa 72% compared to traditional build methods

      ..
      ##Technical specification

      – Isambard-AI is built using the HPE Cray EX supercomputer, a next-generation platform architected to support unprecedented performance and scale.
      – It consist of 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips which combine NVIDIA’s Arm-based Grace CPU with a Hopper-based GPU optimized for power efficiency and giant-scale AI.
      – It features the latest HPE Slingshot 11 interconnect, and nearly 25 petabytes of storage using the Cray Clusterstor E1000 optimised for AI workflows.
      – It utilises sophisticated direct liquid-cooling capabilities as part of the HPE Cray EX supercomputer design to improve energy efficiency and overall carbon footprint impact.
      – The system is housed in a self-cooled, self-contained data center, using HPE Performance Optimized Data Center (POD) technology.

    4. lhrbos on

      Using the most advanced computer to solve politically created problems like NHS waiting lists?

    6. CiderChugger on

      Now witness the power of this fully operational supercomputer! Alright my babber plant more apple trees init

    8. _HGCenty on

      > The aim is to use the supercomputer for public projects such as bringing down NHS waiting lists and developing new tools to tackle climate change – although AI is notoriously energy-hungry.

      It’s going to be used by NHS administrative staff as a search engine isn’t it?

    9. Any-Conversation7485 on

      At least they didn’t turn it on in August, specifically August 29, at 2:14 a.m. Eastern Time.

    10. recursant on

      Named after Grace Hopper, who created the COBOL language, which is still popular to this day.

    11. SchoolForSedition on

      Good heavens. I was a lecturer there when they economised on their email server (about 1995). Hilarious. The idea was we would email and not waste time speaking to each other. But it was overburdened by 10 am. Anything after coffee time would arrive for the next day after it chugged away valiantly all night. Extra trips to ask Why haven’t you replied to my email?

    13. caminashell on

      Had a funny but curious thought; could national government (effciency) be run by AGI rather than all these human morons?