A supercomputer belonging to the University of Vermont is going to be getting a big upgrade.

UVM says a $1 million National Science Foundation grant will be used to significantly upgrade its Vermont Advanced Computing Core.

Over the next few months, 72 high-performance graphics processing units will be added to the existing computer.

Once the work is finished the new cluster-- dubbed DeepGreen-- will be up to 3,000 times faster than the current computer. The new computer will be able to achieve a speed that is the equivalent of 20,000 laptop computers.

UVM associate professor of physics Adrian Del Maestro says the upgrade will give faculty access to one of the fastest supercomputers in New England and one of the 100 fastest academic supercomputers in the country.

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