The system will also feature at least 128 cores and one terabyte of globally addressable memory, either shared or non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA), addressable by every processor.

Networking will feature a minimum of four 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet interfaces, with capability of expansion to eight and a minimum of 16 Fibre Channel interfaces, with capability of expansion to 32.

Last March the CSIRO said it was to located at the Bureau of Meteorology's Head Office in Docklands, Victoria.

The renewal, expected to cost around $840,000, would enable the cluster to provide a range of additional services including specialised cluster services for CSIRO's Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics division and commercial-in-confidence computing, which is required to be done on CSIRO-owned hosts.