A visit to Edinburgh University saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson receive a show-and-tell of the now fully-functional ARCHER2 – the UK’s most powerful supercomputer.

The system – which is around 12 times more powerful than its predecessor – is modelling how medicines interact with cells, revealing how the northern Atlantic sea ice is responding to climate change, and is supporting Rolls Royce in developing more efficient aircraft engines.

“It was great to witness the front-line work of UK supercomputing science right here in Edinburgh,” said Johnson.

He added: “Scotland is rightly benefiting from our £79 million investment, placing it front and centre of research and development, while boosting, spreading and levelling up opportunities across the UK.”

ARCHER2 can perform twenty million billion calculations a second. Its peak computing power is equivalent to around 250,000 modern laptops, making it 10 billion times faster than the first Cray supercomputer produced in 1964.

The £79 million system is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), both part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

It gives UK researchers the computing capabilities to support breakthroughs in areas such as drug development, climate modelling and the design of sustainable technologies and materials.

Speaking about the supercomputer, Edinburgh University Principal Professor Peter Mathieson said: “It is exciting to see ARCHER2 coming online and the work that it is already supporting to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. We have ambitious plans for supercomputing in Edinburgh – ARCHER2 is a significant step towards achieving them.”

As part of the visit, Mr Johnson was shown computer rooms built as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal – designed to host the next generation of supercomputers, known as exascale systems.

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Exascale computers will be one thousand times faster than ARCHER2 and will be capable of making one billion billion calculations every second. Because of this investment, Edinburgh is one of the few places in Europe able to host a computer of such a scale, experts say.

Dame Professor Lynn Gladde, Executive Chair of EPSRC – one of three bodies whose £79 million investment made the ARCHER2 system possible – said: “ARCHER2 is an exciting and important component of the UK’s research and innovation system, providing world-leading computing capabilities to deliver the UK’s fastest research computing for both our university-based researchers and their business partners.

“By allowing researchers to perform virtual experiments on this state-of-the-art system, ARCHER2 will catalyse and accelerate discovery-led research and the development of new applications for the benefit of all society.”

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