In August, the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology announced that the £800m Exascale project had been unfunded, leading to the decision to pull the plug on the programme. However, members of the previous government have disputed this claim.
An Exascale computer is capable of performing at least one exaflop, enabling it to solve extremely complex problems that would take regular computers years to tackle. During an evidence session, Ms Clark explained that the government did not cancel the project, but rather there was no funding allocated for it.
Lord Andrew Dunlop highlighted that other countries are investing in their supercomputer capacity, with the US and China having operational Exascale computers. The European Union is also building its first Exascale computer in Germany.
Ministers are currently working on an ‘AI Action Plan’ to accelerate the use of AI to improve people’s lives. Lord Dunlop raised the possibility of revisiting the Edinburgh computer project once the AI action plan is resolved.
After the plug was pulled on the Exascale project, a senior government figure stated that the Edinburgh computer made “little strategic sense” as it was too focused on traditional computing projects. The University of Edinburgh emphasized the importance of supercomputing for the country’s advancement and expressed readiness to work with the government on future supercomputing initiatives.