The �5m, 13-tonne machine occupies 650 cubic feet of space and can perform three million million calculations every second.

Researchers said if it was an MP3 player it could hold enough music to play continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the next 5,700 years.

The university said it would allow them to remain at the forefront of research.

World class research often requires a world class high performance computing facility Dr Frazer Pearce, University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham's high performance computing (HPC) facility is the second largest academic facility in Europe and the eighth largest of its kind in the world.

The machine has been made available to more than 20 schools and departments across the university, with academics in each school able to access the central grid directly through their desktop PCs via a "clone" system.

Dr Frazer Pearce, in the university's School of Physics and Astronomy, is the HPC project leader and will be using it himself to model the evolution of the universe.

He said: "The new facility will allow us to attempt grand challenge computational projects, reinforcing Nottingham's reputation for producing world-changing research.

"Modern research relies heavily on computers. World class research often requires a world class high performance computing facility, something to which researchers at the University of Nottingham now have on-demand access."