London: Legendary British Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has launched the most powerful shared-memory supercomputer. During the launch, which is part of the Numerical Cosmology 2012 workshop at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Hawking said, “We have made spectacular advances in cosmology and particle physics recently.” The COSMOS supercomputer is part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council DiRAC High Performance Computing facility, a national service for UK cosmologists, astronomers and particle physicists, as well as non-academic users.

He said,”Cosmology is now a precision science, so we need machines like COSMOS to reach out and touch the real universe, to investigate whether our mathematical models are correct.”
Hawking also expressed hope that humankind will soon find an ultimate theory which, in principle, would enable the forecasting of anything that happens in the universe.
Hawking added, “I hope that we will soon find an ultimate theory which, in principle, would enable us to predict everything in the universe.”
The COSMOS consortium’s current programme of research aims to advance the understanding of the origin and structure of the universe, primarily through the scientific exploitation of the cosmic microwave sky.
“Even if we do find the ultimate theory, we will still need supercomputers to describe how something as big and complex as the universe evolves, let alone why humans behave the way they do!”, Hawking said.
Jeremy Yates, the Project Director for DiRAC, said, “The COSMOS supercomputer is vital part of the DiRAC Facility. DiRAC now offers five leading systems to UK researchers, two of which are in Cambridge.It allows the UK cosmology and extra-solar planet research communities to take a leading role in understanding how structure was formed in the very early universe and the composition of the atmospheres of extra-solar planets.”