At its 79th session on 19-20 June 2013, the ECMWF Council authorised the Director-General to enter into a service contract with Cray UK Ltd to replace the High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF) at the Centre from mid-2014 onwards. The contract between ECMWF and Cray UK Ltd was signed on 24 June 2013.
Cray will provide a multi-petaflops supercomputing infrastructure at ECMWF designed for operational resiliency featuring two Cray XC30 systems and a multi-petabyte Cray Sonexion storage system.
The new system will help improve ECMWF’s forecasting capabilities by providing high performance computing to support increased resolution and model enhancements, the development of ensemble-based data assimilation methods in conjunction with the Ensemble Prediction System, better representation of physical processes and further increased use of satellite observation data.
“I am looking forward to working with Cray to enable us to continue improving the skill of our weather predictions. The Cray system will be a strong foundation to meet our strategic, operational and research objectives,” said ECMWF Director-General, Professor Alan Thorpe. “ECMWF’s history of using supercomputers dates back to 1979 when the Centre issued its first operational medium-range weather forecast. Our European member states will all continue to benefit from the ground-breaking weather research we can provide on this new system.”
Ulla Thiel, Vice-President of Cray Europe, and Alan Thorpe, Director-General of ECMWF (seated) and members of both teams.