Extract from Science, Innovation and Technology Committee transcript on Cyber resilience of the UK’s critical national infrastructure - Apr 24

Chair: Professor Goodacre, you are a professor at the University of Manchester. Not far down the road from you in Cheshire is the Hartree facility run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. There has been an announcement that a new Lenovo, Chinese-made supercomputer is to be installed there to be used by, among other people, Rolls-Royce and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, has given evidence to this inquiry and was quoted as saying that this raises important strategic and national security questions. What is your instinct about your neighbouring facility?

Professor Goodacre: Unfortunately, I do not think that I am equipped to answer. I am not an expert in the selection of HPC systems. I have worked with Hartree previously. In fact, they have one of my prototype exascale supercomputers sat in their car park that I was using as part of my research as well. I know that they work diligently towards what is acceptable for their use and market, but, apart from that, I cannot comment on the system. It is using standard components in processing capability terms, because there are only a limited number of vendors that provide those components...

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