So you want to buy a supercomputer?

The document discusses buying a supercomputer for a university in the UK. It describes the UK funding scene for supercomputers, which involves nationally-run major supercomputers and obtaining time on them through competitive grants. It then discusses the author's experience in purchasing a supercomputer for the University of Bath, including putting together a case for management, issuing a request for proposals, and the timelines for delivery and acceptance of the system between 2008 and 2009. The supercomputer purchased consisted of 100 nodes with a total of 800 Intel processor cores.