Yes, it is the interconnects that are important. The UK Met Office has also recently upgraded to a Cray XC40 [0], and there are other XC30 systems in the UK NSS

Yes, it is the interconnects that are important. The UK Met Office has also recently upgraded to a Cray XC40 [0], and there are other XC30 systems in the UK NSS [1] and the US NERSC [2], both of which are used for weather/climate models, amongst other things. [0] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2014/new-hpc http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2014/new-h... [1] http://www.archer.ac.uk/about-archer/ http://www.archer.ac.uk/about-archer/ [2] http://www.nersc.gov/systems/edison-cray-xc30/ http://www.nersc.gov/systems/edison-cray-xc30/