Viglen helps create a Big Bang

VAR and system builder selected by CERN to supply processing power for much-anticipated scientific experiment

Setting the CERN: Viglen is supplying some of the processing power for the Large Hadron Collider

Viglen has sealed a £1.8m deal with CERN Laboratory to supply part of the processing power to help analyse conditions after the Big Bang simulation.

Under the three-year deal, the system builder and VAR will supply a High Performance Computing (HPC) solution, including some 5,000 Intel Nehalem processor cores backed up by Viglen’s in-house maintenance and support structure.

This will enable global scientists to study the data produced when CERN recreates the Big Bang using its Large Hadron Collider, to try and get to the bottom of the origins of the universe.

Viglen was awarded the contract by Switzerland-based CERN following its previous work with the laboratory’s associated GridPP UK-based sites.

Bordan Tkachuk, chief executive of Viglen, said: “We are delighted to announce this agreement with CERN. Having already worked on some projects with other contributing GridPP UK-based sites; we are honoured to be the leading UK-based company to supply HPC solutions to CERN. This agreement will mean that CERN will possess all the storage capacity and processing power for it to remain at the forefront of scientific research.”

Dr Olof Bärring, who is responsible for computer facility planning and procurement at CERN said: “Viglen was one of the firms awarded large contracts for expanding our processing and storage capacity. This expansion, which represents almost a doubling of the total capacity, is required for meeting the scientific computing needs of the experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

“Our strong requirements on performance, cost and power efficiency were readily met by Viglen’s solutions and we have been impressed by their experience in dealing with large scale computing and storage projects as well as the timely and reliable delivery,” he added.