The supercomputing conference, hosted by the University of Bristol, will see around 120 scientists from across the world gather to discuss the latest in high-performance computing technology.

Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, head of high-performance computing at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, will deliver a keynote speech about how computational modelling research is being used to help predict and model natural disasters in the wake of the Japan earthquakes.

Simon McIntosh-Smith, senior lecturer in high-performance computing at Bristol University and the conference chair, said, "Cutting-edge scientific research is increasingly reliant on high-performance computing alongside traditional theoretical and experimental approaches.

"The computational tools at our disposal are improving at exponential rates, radically changing the science that's possible."

He said the conference would bring together "the leaders in the next generation of high-performance computing", where technologies developed for 3D games, mobile phones and reprogrammable processors are being used to design future supercomputers. He said future supercomputers would be "capable of performance that will make today's computers look like yesterday's desktop calculators".