The power to change our world

The Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab is focused on enabling practical breakthroughs in high performance computing (HPC) while fostering innovation in next-generation technologies.

Established through a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Pembroke College, Intel, and Dell Technologies, the Lab brings together global technology leaders and researchers to explore, test, and advance the future of HPC.

The Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab is also home to one of the UK’s fastest artificial intelligence supercomputer – Dawn.

Developed through a long-term co‑design partnership between the University of Cambridge, UK Research and Innovation, UKAEA, Intel, and Dell Technologies, Dawn plays a vital role in the national AI Research Resource (AIRR) to provide UK researchers with sovereign AI infrastructure for large‑scale science and industry projects.

Discover more about the Dawn service by clicking the logo below ->

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Latest

The RCS team has just returned from a fantastic and productive week at the Society of Research Software Engineers Conference 2025 at the University of Warwick.

By COZL

12 Sep 25

Senior Government Minister Pat McFadden visits Cambridge to explore how AI can transform public services

The University welcomed the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP, to tour the Dawn supercomputer and discuss the ways in which AI can transform public services and healthcare.

By COZL

06 Feb 25

Minister for AI and Digital Government visits Cambridge to tour the Dawn supercomputer

The Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark MP, visited the University of Cambridge on the day the Government announced their new AI Action Plan.

By COZL

15 Jan 25

Director Paul Calleja addresses the HPC Advisory Council Conference 2024 in Leicester

Dr. Paul Calleja, Director of the Zettascale Lab and Cambridge Research Computing Services (RCS), took the stage this morning at the HPC Advisory Council Conference in Leicester to share insights on the groundbreaking AI and high-performance computing (HPC) innovations being developed at the University of Cambridge.

By COZL

15 Oct 24

Dawn Pioneer Projects: Show and Tell Day

The Zettascale Lab's first Dawn Pioneer Projects: Show and Tell Day, held on Friday 27th September in Cambridge, was a significant milestone for the Lab.

By COZL

30 Sep 24

New Dawn roles now open

Three new opportunities to help shape and deliver the UK's first National AI Research Service have now opened in our team.

By COZL

02 Sep 24

Dawn sponsors RSEcon 2024

The University of Cambridge’s Dawn team are this year’s Gold Sponsors of the annual Research Software Engineering Conference 2024.

By COZL

01 Sep 24

RCS Director Paul Calleja at Dell Technology World 2024

At Dell Technology World 2024 in Las Vegas, RCS Direct Paul Calleja offered his thoughts at a mainstage ‘Trailblazers’ session on the future of AI.

By COZL

22 May 24

AI Cafe in Cambridge

By COZL

20 May 24

Themes

Several key themes define the focus of the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, serving as a foundation for its research and collaboration. These themes are explored through a regular stream of projects, publications, and technical outputs. As the state of the art in computing evolves, new themes will emerge, reflecting the Lab’s adaptive approach to advancing high-performance computing and addressing the most pressing challenges in science and technology.

Artificial Intelligence

This theme focuses on the development, optimisation, and deployment of AI models on high-performance computing infrastructure—enabling breakthroughs in areas such as personalised medicine, climate modelling, materials science, and fusion energy.

High Performance Ethernet

While Ethernet has long been the dominant standard in enterprise networks, it is only recently beginning to demonstrate the low-latency performance needed for demanding high-performance computing workloads—opening new possibilities for unifying enterprise and HPC infrastructure.

High Performance Storage Solutions

Storage is a critical challenge in modern high-performance computing systems. The rapid growth in data generation and usage across science, engineering, medicine, and industry has exposed limitations in traditional storage architectures. As data analysis becomes an increasingly central part of supercomputing workflows, performance bottlenecks and system slowdowns are becoming more common—highlighting the need for next-generation storage solutions that can keep pace with evolving computational demands.

oneAPI Centre of Excellence

oneAPI is a new scalable programming model from Intel that targets heterogenous systems, easing the task of programming for and running code on different computer architectures.