University of Bristol launches ‘UK’s most powerful’ AI supercomputer

The University of Bristol has launched what it claims is the UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer.

The £225 million Isambard-AI facility, which was developed in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Nvidia, is able to process in one second what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve.

The computer offers processing speeds and capacity that the university said have never been seen before in the UK and will allow both researchers and industry to harness the huge potential of AI in fields such as robotics, big data, climate research and drug discovery.

The supercomputer is built and run by the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS) and based at NCC on the Bristol and Bath Science Park.

Isambard-AI, alongside the Dawn supercomputer at the University of Cambridge, will see the UK’s compute capacity increase to 23 AI ExaFLOPs, which the University of Bristol said is the equivalent of everyone in the UK spending 85,000 years doing what the full UK Government’s AI Research Resource (AIRR) will do in one second.

An ExaFLOP is a measure of supercomputer performance which represents one quintillion, or 10 to the power of 18, floating-point operations per second.

The University of Bristol claims it is the sixth fastest supercomputer in Europe and the fourth greenest in the world according to the Green500 list as it is built to be energy efficient.

The computer exclusively uses zero carbon electricity and it has been built in a low-carbon, modular data centre, installed by Oakland Construction. The university said has led to a reduction in carbon emissions of around 72 per cent compared to traditional build methods.

It also utilises HPE’s 100 per cent fan-less, direct liquid cooling technology to deliver up to 90 per cent reduction in cooling power consumption. The university added that there is also potential to recycle the waste heat output for nearby homes and businesses.

The computer has been named after engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and was built in partnership with HPE, using next-generation supercomputing with HPE Cray EX that is optimised for AI workloads with 5,400 Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips.

It was launched by Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology and forms a key part of the UK Government’s AIRR, intended to boost the country’s capabilities in responsible and cutting-edge AI development.

The university has had over 80 applications from researchers and SMEs to use Isambard-AI and expects demand to increase.

“We have a long history of AI research, innovation and education and now we are home to the UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer,” said Professor Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor and president of the University of Bristol. “Due to its impressive power, working at speeds 100,000 times faster than an average laptop, we will soon see Isambard AI deliver transformational research and breakthroughs that will ultimately improve people’s lives.”