COSMA has been in existence since July 2001 and is now in its 8th generation.
Researchers use the machine – now in its eighth version - to test current theories about the birth of the Universe, the origin of galaxies, dark matter and dark energy.
Hosted by the Institute of Computational Cosmology at Durham University and used by cosmologists, astronomers and particle physicists from across the world, COSMA has the processing power and memory of about 28,000 home PCs.
This enables scientists to simulate the evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day with unprecedented accuracy.
COSMA plays a key role in the UK’s Distributed Research utilising Advanced Computing (DiRAC), which supports research in cosmology, astrophysics, particle physics and nuclear physics.
COSMA also supports the work of the Durham Data Intensive Science Centre for Doctoral Training connecting academic research with industry.
COSMA has a memory capacity of 600 terabytes (equivalent to about 40,000 PCs) and more then 8000 terabytes of data storage of which 1500 terabytes are superfast, in excess of 200 gigabyte/sec. That's 2,000 times that of a home network!
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