This is a short update on the progress of Calder, the University’s next High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster.
Since our last update, we’ve had a steady stream of hardware arriving. By the end of March, everything should be on site — which is great news. So far, we’ve already received:
- All CPU and management nodes
- All the storage
- About half of the GPU nodes
- Racks and power
We’re waiting for the remaining GPU nodes, but everything is moving along nicely.
Behind the scenes, our internal teams have been working closely with Cambridge Research Computing (CRC) to finalise Calder’s design. They’re making sure to incorporate everything we learned from Aire into the new system, so we can make Calder even better.
Now for the part everyone really wants to know: when you’ll actually get to use it.
- User Acceptance Testing: late May / early June 2026
- General availability: end of June 2026
We’re also giving the cooling chiller coils and cool air condensers in the Houldsworth Machine Room an upgrade. You won’t see or feel any impact from this work — it won’t affect Aire or Calder at all — but it does show the University’s continued investment in HPC and Research IT.
If you’d like to keep up with future updates about Calder and our wider HPC ecosystem, consider joining the Research Computing Community. It’s a simple way to stay informed about new capabilities, planned improvements, and opportunities to get more involved.
In the meantime, here are some photos of what will eventually become Calder:
