A globally recognised supercomputer index has listed a WA supercomputer as not just the most powerful in Australia, but in the Southern Hemisphere.
Setonix, the scientific name for quokka, was recognised as the 15th most powerful public research supercomputer in the globally recognised Green500 and Top500 lists.
The rankings were announced at an international supercomputing conference in Texas, called SC22.
At peak performance, the computer, based at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, will provide massively parallel computing power that is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of standard computers working in unison for machine learning, artificial intelligence and research.
At its peak, the supercomputer will take just one second to do a calculation that would take a human 1.5 billion years to achieve.
Broad range of users
The state government has committed $22.4 million over five years to support the Centre, which is a National Research infrastructure facility. It is a key asset to WA, attracting talent and investment, and reinforces WA’s reputation as a leader in world class research.
Research areas for the facility include health and medical, mining, resource, renewable energy, engineering, radio astronomy, engineering, climate change and agriculture systems.
Users include universities and research institutes teams, government agencies, small-to-medium enterprises and ASX-listed companies.
Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre’s Executive Director Mark Stickells said being named one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers – and greenest – is a significant acknowledgment of Australia’s capability in performance computing.
“Setonix will give Australian researchers the computing power and infrastructure, supported by our expert staff, to discover new galaxies, develop new medicines, create new battery technologies, and better understand our universe,” he said.
“It will unlock the scientific knowledge needed to support Australia’s standing in global academia and commercial success.
By delivering the full power of Setonix in an energy efficient system, we can ensure researchers are able to do their work with sustainability in mind. This is a significant milestone for Pawsey and the broader Australian research community and is the culmination of more than three years of effort from the team to deliver world-class compute facilities sustainably.
Mark Stickells
Deputy Premier and Science Minister Roger Cook said the latest global rankings confirm what the state government has known for some time – the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre is a key asset not only to WA, but also to the global research community.
“We have one of the world’s most powerful and greenest supercomputers right here in Perth,” he said.
“Supercomputing makes it possible to develop solutions that would otherwise be unsolvable, and to have Setonix right here in WA benefits not only our research institutes, but our whole economy.
By continuing our investment in Pawsey, the WA Government is helping to position the State as a national and international leader in high performance computing, and supporting capability building in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Roger Cook
Pawsey itself is an unincorporated joint venture between CSIRO, Edith Cowan University, Curtin University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia. Along with the state government, the Centre receives support from the federal government in the form of a $70 million grant.
