The system also features six IBM iDataPlex servers with 12 Nvidia GPU processors, as well as 120 TeraBytes of shared storage.

Since going live in July 2011, the university has been using the HPC facility for research in a wide range of departments, including chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer science and systems biology. It hopes to expand the access to other departments, including to life sciences and the business school.

The research using the new server cluster includes Computational Fluid Dynamic modelling, and the study of dynamics of electrically-conducting fluids such as metal liquids (Magneto Hydro Dynamics, or MHD).

With a peak performance of 35.75 TeraFlops, Warwick said that the new server and storage cluster was a significant improvement on the university's existing three-year-old cluster.

"The main significant benefit is a serious increase in performance - three or four times more powerful, and quicker than what we had before," said Matthew Ismail, HPC manager at Warwick.