• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds




NNSA signs $600 million contract to build its first exascale supercomputer

Posted at 12:48 pm August 13, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image courtesy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The National Nuclear Security Administration has signed a $600 million contract with Cray Inc. to build the first exascale supercomputer for the NNSA at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

It is one of three exascale systems to be built at U.S. Department of Energy or NNSA laboratories. The other two exascale machines will be at DOE laboratories: Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ORNL currently has the most powerful supercomputer in the world, Summit, and LLNL has the second-fastest, Sierra. They are both petaflop systems. Summit is capable of 200 petaflops, or 200,000 trillion calculations per second.

All three of the new exascale supercomputers will be built by Cray using their Shasta architecture, Slingshot interconnect, and new system software platform, the NNSA said in a press release Tuesday.

An exascale computer will be able to solve calculations up to 50 times faster than today’s top supercomputers, exceeding a quintillion, or 1018, calculations per second. That’s a billion billion calculations per second.

Advertisement

The NNSA supercomputer will be called El Capitan. It is expected to be delivered in late 2022. It will be used for research that helps maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. The NNSA is part of DOE, and the agency maintains the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, works on nuclear nonproliferation, and provides fuel for nuclear reactors used by the U.S. Navy. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is in Livermore, California, east of San Francisco.

“The Department of Energy is the world leader in supercomputing, and El Capitan is a critical addition to our next-generation systems,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “El Capitan’s advanced capabilities for modeling, simulation, and artificial intelligence will help push America’s competitive edge in energy and national security, allow us to ask tougher questions, solve greater challenges, and develop better solutions for generations to come.”

In its press release, the NNSA said the new system will allow researchers from all of its weapons design laboratories—LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories—to run 3D simulations and calculations at resolutions that are difficult, time-consuming, or even impossible using today’s state-of-the art supercomputers.

“NNSA is modernizing the nuclear security enterprise to face 21st century threats,” said Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, DOE under secretary for nuclear security and NNSA administrator. “El Capitan will allow us to be more responsive, innovative, and forward-thinking when it comes to maintaining a nuclear deterrent that is second to none in a rapidly-evolving threat environment.”

Advertisement

El Capitan will achieve a sustained performance of more than 1.5 exaFLOPS, or 1.5 quintillion calculations per second, the press release said. It will substantially outpace LLNL’s Sierra system, which is currently the world’s second most powerful supercomputer at 125 petaFLOPS of peak performance, the press release said.

Like the El Capitan contract, the Cray contract for the Frontier supercomputer at ORNL is also valued at $600 million. Frontier is expected to debut in 2021, when it could be the world’s most powerful. Like El Capitan, Frontier is expected to perform at more than 1.5 exaflops.

The contract with Intel Corporation for Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory (Cray is a subcontractor) is valued at more than $500 million. Aurora will be delivered to Argonne in 2021, and it is expected to be the first exaflop computer in the United States. Argonne National Laboratory is southwest of Chicago.

Click here to learn about NNSA’s current supercomputing capabilities.

Read our previous stories on exascale computers here.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

You can contact John Huotari, owner and publisher of Oak Ridge Today, at (865) 951-9692 or [email protected]

Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.


Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

Copyright 2019 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Filed Under: Front Page News, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne National Laboratory, Aurora, Cray, DOE, El Capitan, exaflops, exascale supercomputer, Frontier, Intel, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, nuclear weapons stockpile, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, petaflops, Rick Perry, Sierra, summit, supercomputer, U.S. Department of Energy

Advertisements

 

Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Most of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require at least four hours to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

More U.S. Department of Energy News

Protesters will say nuclear weapons illegal under UN treaty

Members of Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and supporters gather across from the Y-12 National Security Complex to protest the plant's Uranium Processing Facility in April 2013. (File photo) Protesters plan to … [Read More...]

U.S. Department of Energy Logo

Controlled burns start this week on DOE land

The U.S. Department of Energy is starting a series of controlled burns of grassland areas on the Oak Ridge Reservation this week. The controlled burns could continue through mid-April, depending upon weather. The … [Read More...]

Mason, an IDB member, community volunteer, dies of COVID complications

David Mason David Lane Mason, a member of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and community volunteer, died of COVID-19 complications on Monday. He was 79. Mason was a former deputy director of environmental … [Read More...]

Ashley Golden promoted to director of ORISE health studies program

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education promoted Ashley Golden to director of its health studies program, where she previously served as a group manager and biostatistician. In her new role, Golden will … [Read More...]

Public Notice: Comment period extended for Draft EA for Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12

EXTENSION OF THE COMMENT PERIOD FOR THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING FACILITY AT THE Y-12 NATIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX (DOE/EA-2145) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear … [Read More...]

More DOE

Recent Posts

  • Protesters will say nuclear weapons illegal under UN treaty
  • VITA Tax Center opens Feb. 9
  • Roane State temporarily closes Coffey-McNally Building
  • TVA will blast rock to build substation
  • Council to consider accepting airport grants
  • Police chief to speak to League of Women Voters on Tuesday
  • Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will feature ORHS principal
  • Controlled burns start this week on DOE land
  • Current status of city facilities due to COVID
  • Rep. Fleischmann tests positive for COVID

Recent Comments

  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Mark Caldwell on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Matt Bailey on Dodson also wants to serve as mayor pro tem
  • Tracy Powers on Planning Commission to consider Main Street apartments, plan revisions
  • johnhuotari on Four incumbents re-elected to Oak Ridge City Council
  • Levi D. Smith on Four incumbents re-elected to Oak Ridge City Council
  • samuel hopwood on Housing: Apartments proposed on former AMSE site
  • Matt Bailey on Robin Smith named Oak Ridge police chief

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2021 Oak Ridge Today