Dedicated AI Supercomputer Moves Closer

Progression with the UK’s largest Supercomputer received a significant boost following the signing of a four year, £5 million contract between Atos, a global leader in digital transformation and the University of Oxford to deliver the JADE-2, deep learning supercomputer.

JADE-2, which will be hosted at the Hartree Centre at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, will give UK researchers and industry invaluable access to extremely powerful systems that will support ground breaking work in areas such as energy storage and supply and improved drug design. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), it follows the highly successful JADE (Joint Academic Data Science Endeavour), also hosted at the Hartree Centre.

With over 500 NVIDIA GPU’s the new high-performance system will house at least triple the current capacity of JADE, providing computing capabilities that will help meet the increasing demand for AI-focused facilities in the UK.  

Alison Kennedy, Director of STFC’s Hartree Centre, said: “I’m thrilled at this latest announcement between Atos and the University of Oxford.  JADE-2 will significantly amplify the UK’s ability to address AI and machine learning challenges, supporting the ambition to be a world-leader in these areas. I believe that this milestone, which builds on an already strong, well-established partnership between Atos and the Hartree Centre, will help UK research and industry future-proof itself for the growing demand for AI and deep learning technologies from across a whole range of scientific fields and industry sectors.”

Further information at www.atos.net