Liftoff for supercomputing

Scientists can now supercharge their technology by plugging into the beginnings of a $48 million national supercomputer network funded by taxpayers, universities and technology institutes.

The investment comes on the heels of a Government bailout of the dedicated high-speed broadband Karen network for innovation institutions and as organisations shun managing their own supercomputing facilities to purchase processing power through the cloud.

But proponents of the National eScience Infrastructure say it will deliver a desperately needed boost to the supercomputing capability of the New Zealand science community.

Auckland, Canterbury and Otago universities, Niwa, AgResearch and Landcare Technology are at the same time contributing $21m towards the upgrade of existing supercomputer facilities, which will form the network. The Science and Technology Ministry has committed $27.4m over four years.

Auckland University e-technology centre director Mark Gahegan said there was "so much pent-up need" for extra supercomputing power and surveys of the science community showed the first iteration of Nesi would not be enough to fully meet their needs.

Researcher in New Zealand

"You have two choices as a researcher in New Zealand. You go to where that high-performance computing capability is, in which case you leave, or you find a way to bring it into the country."

Unlike the Karen network – which has so far been unable to fully fund itself – Nesi would provide the facilities to do innovation.

Scott Houston, former manager of the now defunct Supercomputer Centre in Wellington, said universities had shown little interest in using the centre when it launched in 2004 offering blade servers cast off from Weta Digital, however applauded their move to collaborate on supercomputing.

But researchers would shortly be able to carry out high-powered computing regardless of where they and their data were located, he said. Universities could in future work with his startup GreenButton – which lets people to rent processing power as they need it.

Professor Gahegan said Auckland University had tried to make use of the Supercomputer Centre cluster nevertheless struggled to get "buy-in". Weta Digital had enormous computing resources yet ramped up to full capacity when working on projects.