Established on the 1st of January, 2000, the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS) carries out research and research training in cognitive science with particular emphasis on three general domains of cognition: belief formation, visual cognition and language. At the heart of MACCS’ language work is a groundbreaking research program headed by Federation Fellow and Scientific Director, Max Coltheart.

In late 2004, with Coltheart’s research gaining greater local and international recognition, the need for a High Performance Computing (HPC) solution to process complex computational models was given a top priority. The result, after extensive consideration was a 28-node Apple Xserve cluster and – more importantly – a dramatic improvement in research capabilities.

“When we started this project around 15 years ago [prior to the establishment of MACCS], we were using a network of Sun workstations,” Coltheart explains. “But as the computational models and vocabularies [data sets] increased in size and complexity, the amount of time it took to get a result was stretching from hours to days.

“What we’ve now seen with the introduction of the Apple Xserve cluster is a drop to minutes.”