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Dr Peter Boyle.
Dr Peter Boyle.

Dr Peter Boyle of the particle physics theory research group in the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics has worked with Columbia University and IBM's BlueGene team to design part of IBM's prize winning next-generation supercomputer processor.

An academic team from the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics in the University of Edinburgh and from the Physics Department at Columbia University has collaborated with IBM (NYSE:IBM) over the last three years on the chip design of IBM's next generation BlueGene prototype computer in a unique industrial-academic collaboration.

This prototype has been judged the world's most energy efficient supercomputer taking first place on the Supercomputing 'Green500 List' for November 2010.

Both University of Edinburgh and Columbia University plan to use the system to advance quantum chromodynamics (QCD) simulations in their research of particle physics. The Edinburgh system is funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and will be installed the the Advanced Computing Facility at the University of Edinburgh. The Columbia University design effort was carried out in partnership with the RIKEN BNL Research Center which, together with the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), will fund a system to be installed at BNL.