When you think of a "supercomputer", you very may well have in mind something from a science fiction film. A big, metal apparatus, with flashing lights and whirring cylinders, wires spilling out, filling up the room. And there are, in fact, computers kind of like that in the world.

But there are other kinds of supercomputers. They’re called "virtual supercomputers", and they don’t buzz and flash very much. But they are powerful. Quite powerful indeed. Powerful enough to design new medications or predict climate change.

"Virtual supercomputers" are networks: many different super computers, which co-operate. They all store their data, and together, they can handle huge amounts of information. It’s as if all the people in your town memorised a few lines of Hamlet. Put everyone together in the town square, and soon, out of almost nothing, to be or not to be.

The EU is a kind of network: many separate countries, co-ordinating on a bigger project called Europe. Maybe that’s why now’s a great time to build a supercomputer network on the continent. The project is called DEISA, and now Dr Hermann Lederer of the Garching Computing Centre of the Max Planck Society is going to take us on a quick tour of a very fast network.

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