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

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

ORNL building world’s smartest supercomputer

Posted at 11:31 am August 3, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

This a graphical representation of the Summit computer cabinets. It is not a photograph of the final design. (Image courtesy ORNL/Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility)

This a graphical representation of the Summit computer cabinets. It is not a photograph of the final design. (Image courtesy ORNL/Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10 a.m. Aug. 8.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Wednesday said it is building the world’s smartest supercomputer.

The new supercomputer is called Summit. It will be located in a new data center next to Titan, which is now the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world.

Summit will be 5-10 times faster than Titan, ORNL said. It will move data five to 10 times faster, store eight times more data, and perform many more calculations simultaneously than Titan, the lab said in information provided by spokesperson Morgan McCorkle.

Summit will be the world’s smartest supercomputer because of its enormous memory and data handling capabilities as well as its unique machine learning processor design, McCorkle said.

“The first of Summit’s cabinets arrived Monday, and our team is in the process of uncrating and putting them in place,” McCorkle said in response to questions from Oak Ridge Today. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Science, Slider, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Argonne National Laboratory, Aurora, Center for Accelerated Application Readiness, central processing units, CPUs, Cray XK7, GPUs, graphics processing units, high-performance computing, IBM, IBM POWER9 CPUs, Jaguar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mellanox, Milky Way-2, Morgan McCorkle, NVIDIA, NVIDIA Volta GPUs, NVIDIA’s high-speed NVLink, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, petaflop, Piz Daint, powerful supercomputer, Sierra, smartest supercomputer, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputer, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top500 List, U.S. Department of Energy

ORNL’s Titan drops to number four on list of world’s most powerful supercomputers

Posted at 10:06 am June 19, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was once ranked as the world’s most powerful supercomputer, but it is now ranked number four. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:40 a.m.

Once the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory dropped to number four on a list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday.

Titan, a Cray XK7 system, was bumped from the number three spot by the upgraded Piz Daint, a Cray XC50 system installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre.

China continues to have the world’s two most powerful supercomputers.

The TOP50 List of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is based on a benchmark test known as Linpack. The list is released twice each year, once in June and again in November. The 49th edition of the TOP500 List was released Monday in conjunction with the opening session of the ISC High Performance conference, which is taking place this week in Frankfurt, Germany. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: China, Cray XC50, Cray XK7, ISC High Performance conference, Linpack performance, Milky Way-2, National Supercomputer Center, National University of Defense Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Piz Daint, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputers, Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top500 List, U.S. Department of Energy, world's most powerful supercomputers

Supercomputers: China still has top two, ORNL’s Titan remains No. 3

Posted at 1:00 am November 23, 2016
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was once ranked as the world’s most powerful supercomputer, but it was ranked number three in November 2016 in the semiannual TOP500 List. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

 

China still has the two fastest supercomputers in the world, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory remains number three.

The semi-annual TOP500 List of the world’s top supercomputers was released last Monday, November 14, at a conference in Salt Lake City.

Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, has achieved 17.59 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per second.

The most powerful supercomputer, a relatively new Chinese supercomputer named Sunway TaihuLight, is capable of 93 petaflops. It is built entirely using processors designed and made in China. In June, it displaced Tianhe-2, an Intel-based Chinese supercomputer that had claimed the number one spot on the six previous TOP500 lists.

Tianhe-2, the number two system, achieved a speed of 33.86 petaflops, or more than 33,000 trillion calculations per second, in a test known as the LINPACK benchmark. That ranking program uses a series of linear equations to test computer systems around the world. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: China, Cray XK7, IBM supercomputer, Linpack benchmark, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputer, Tianhe-2, Titan, Titan supercomputer, Top500, Top500 List, U.S. Department of Energy, United States

New Chinese supercomputer named world’s fastest; ORNL’s Titan drops to No. 3

Posted at 9:40 am June 20, 2016
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, which was the world’s fastest supercomputer in November 2012 but is now ranked No. 3. (File photo courtesy ORNL/October 2013)

 

China maintained its number one ranking in the latest edition of the TOP500 list of the world’s top supercomputers, but with a new system built entirely using processors designed and made in China.

China now has the top two supercomputers on the semiannual TOP500 list, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has dropped from number two to number three.

The new Chinese supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight, is capable of 93 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per second, a press release said.

It displaced Tianhe-2, an Intel-based Chinese supercomputer that had claimed the number one spot on the past six TOP500 lists. Tianhe-2 achieved a speed of 33.86 petaflops, or more than 33,000 trillion calculations per second, in a test known as the LINPACK benchmark.

Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, achieved 17.59 petaflops.

Titan was the top system for a short time. It was number one in November 2012, but it was bumped to number two behind Tianhe-2 in June 2013. This is the first time it has been number three.

The latest list marks the first time since the start of the TOP500 that the United States is not home to the largest number of systems. With a surge in industrial and research installations registered over the last few years, China leads with 167 systems and the U.S. is second with 165. China also leads the performance category, thanks to the number one and number two systems, the press release said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: China, Cray XK7, International Supercomputer Conference, Linpack benchmark, National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, National Supercomputing Center, National University of Defense Technology, NRCPC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, petaflops, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputers, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top500 List, U.S. Department of Energy

Supercomputers: China’s Tianhe-2 still No. 1, ORNL’s Titan stays No. 2

Posted at 3:17 am July 17, 2015
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, which was the world’s fastest supercomputer in November 2012 but is now ranked No. 2. (Photos courtesy of ORNL/File photo October 2013)

 

For the fifth consecutive time, Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, has retained its position as the world’s number one system, according to the 45th edition of the twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Tianhe-2, which means Milky Way-2, led the list with a performance of 33.86 petaflop/s (or quadrillions of calculations per second) on the Linpack benchmark.

At number two was Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Titan, the top system in the United States and one of the most energy-efficient systems on the list, achieved 17.59 petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark.

The only new entry in the Top 10 supercomputers on the latest list is at number seven—Shaheen II is a Cray XC40 system installed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, in Saudi Arabia. Shaheen II achieved 5.536 petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark, making it the highest-ranked Middle East system in the 22-year history of the list and the first to crack the Top 10. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Asia, China, Cray Inc., Cray XC40, Cray XK7, Europe, Frankfurt, IBM, Intel, International Supercomputing Conference, Japan, KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Lenovo, Linpack benchmark, Milky Way-2, National University of Defense Technology, NVIDIA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Saudi Arabia, Shaheen II, supercomputers, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy, United States

INCITE grants awarded to 59 computational research projects

Posted at 11:01 am November 20, 2013
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced 59 scientific projects that will share nearly six billion core hours on two of America’s fastest supercomputers, including the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, pictured above. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science announced 59 projects, promising to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, that will share nearly six billion core hours on two of America’s fastest supercomputers dedicated to open science. Their work will advance knowledge in critical areas from sustainable energy technologies to the environmental consequences of energy use.

The allocations come from the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, or INCITE, program. Through it, the world’s most advanced computational research projects from academia, government, and industry are given access to DOE’s leadership computing facilities at Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: ALCF, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, core hours, Cray XK7, DOE, energy, IBM Blue Gene/Q, INCITE, INCITE grants, Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, James Hack, Julia White, Leadership Computing Facilities, Michael Papka, Mira, National Center for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Science, OLCF, researchers, science, supercomputers, Titan, U.S. Department of Energy

Chinese supercomputer still No. 1, ORNL’s Titan No. 2

Posted at 9:00 am November 18, 2013
By John Huotari 2 Comments

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at No. 2 in a Top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday morning. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

A Chinese supercomputer kept its top ranking, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory stayed at No. 2 in a Top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers released Monday morning.

The top two spots were unchanged from the semiannual rankings released five months ago in June, when Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, bumped Titan from the top spot. The ORNL supercomputer had been named No. 1 one year ago.

The rankings released Monday at the SC13 conference in Denver, Colo., said Tianhe-2 is capable of performing 33.86 petaflops. That’s 33.86 quadrillion calculations per second, on what is known as a Linpack benchmark test.

Titan is a Cray XK7 system that achieved 17.59 petaflops. Titan is one of the most energy-efficient systems on the list, consuming a total of 8.21 megawatts and delivering 2.143 gigaflops per watt, a press release said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories Tagged With: AICS, Argonne National Laboratory, Austin, BlueGene/Q, China, Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Cray XC30, Cray XK7, CSCS, Europe, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Fujitsu, Germany, IBM BlueGene/Q, Intel Xeon Phi, Jack Dongarra, Japan, JUQEEN, K computer, Kobe, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Leibniz Rechenzentrum, Linpack benchmark, Lugano, Mira, National University of Defense Technology, NVIDIA GPU, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Piz Daint, RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, SC13, Sequoia, Stampede, supercomputer, SuperMUC, Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Switzerland, Texas Advanced Computing Center, Thom Mason, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top10, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Tennessee, University of Texas, Vulcan

Chinese supercomputer bumps ORNL’s Titan from No. 1 spot

Posted at 12:32 pm June 17, 2013
By John Huotari 3 Comments

Tianhe-2 Lights

Lights on the Chinese Tianhe-2 supercomputer, which has a theoretical peak that is twice as fast as the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy Jack Dongarra)

A Chinese supercomputer has bumped the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from the No. 1 spot on a semiannual ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The Tianhe-2, which was developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, is capable of 33.86 petaflops, or more than 33,000 trillion calculations per second.

Now ranked No. 2, Titan was able to perform 17,000 trillion calculations per second, or 17.59 petaflops, according to the list published in November. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories Tagged With: 2013 International Supercomputing Conference, AICS, Argonne National Laboratory, Asia, BlueGene/Q, China, Cray XK7, DOE, Europe, France, Fujitsu, Germany, Guangzho, IBM, Intel Xeon IvyBridge, Jack Dongarra, Japan, K computer, Kobe, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Leipzig, Milky Way-2, Mira, National Supercomputer Center, National University of Defense Technology, NVIDIA, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, petaflops, RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, Sequoia, supercomputer, Tianhe-1A, Tianhe-2, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy, United Kingdom, United States, University of Tennessee, Xeon Phi

Titan supercomputer at ORNL completes acceptance testing

Posted at 9:58 am June 12, 2013
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory 1 Comment

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was ranked as the world’s fastest supercomputer in November 2012. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

By Leo Williams

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Titan supercomputer has completed rigorous acceptance testing to ensure the functionality, performance, and stability of the machine, one of the world’s most powerful supercomputing systems for open science.

The U.S. Department of Energy machine, the first to combine different types of processing units to maximize performance at such a large scale, ranked as the fastest supercomputer in the world in the November 2012 list published at http://www.top500.org/. Titan, a Cray XK7 supercomputer, is capable of more than 27,000 trillion calculations each second—or 27 petaflops. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories Tagged With: ALCC, AMD, Buddy Bland, central processing unit, CPU, Cray XK7, D&D, Director's Discretion, DOE, GPU, graphic processing units, INCITE, Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, Leo Williams, NVIDIA, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge, Office of Science, ORNL, supercomputer, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy

Cray re-soldering Titan’s connectors, supercomputer testing could be done in April

Posted at 1:55 pm March 13, 2013
By John Huotari 11 Comments

Jeff Nichols and Titan at ORNL

Jeff Nichols, associate director for computing and computational sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in front of Titan, the world’s fastest supercomputer. (Photos courtesy of ORNL)

Hundreds of connectors are being re-soldered each week, and the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory—the world’s fastest machine—could be in regular production by May, a lab official said Wednesday.

Jeff Nichols, ORNL associate lab director for computing and computational sciences, said connectors on the $100 million computer’s motherboards had too much gold, and solder was interacting with the gold on connector pins, making the solder unstable and leading to cracks.

There are about 20,000 of the pencil-sized connectors, which link central and graphic processing units, or CPUs and GPUs. Each connector has about 100 pins.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, Top Stories Tagged With: acceptance testing, blades, cabinets, connectors, CPU, Cray Inc., Cray XK7, gold, GPU, Jeff Nichols, motherboards, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, petaflops, solder, supercomputer, Titan

World’s fastest supercomputer at ORNL more about research than rankings

Posted at 4:53 am November 13, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Titan Supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is now ranked as the world’s fastest. (Photo courtesy of ORNL)

The No. 1 ranking for the new Titan supercomputer, designating it as the most powerful in the world, was clearly appreciated in East Tennessee on Monday.

But even as they celebrated a return to the top spot, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the giant computer is based, said they are focused more on research than rankings.

“We love being No. 1,” said Bronson Messer, acting group leader for scientific computing at the National Center for Computational Science at ORNL. “It’s great recognition. But what really matters is what science will do with the machine.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Science, Top Stories Tagged With: AMD, Bronson Messer, Buddy Bland, CPU, Cray XK7, GPU, INCITE, Jack Dongarra, Jaguar, Jeff Nichols, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Center for Computational Science, NVIDIA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, petaflops, Sequoia, supercomputer, Thom Mason, Titan, Top500, U.S. Department of Energy

Search Oak Ridge Today

Classifieds

Availability of the draft environmental assessment for off-site depleted uranium manufacturing (DOE/EA-2252)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announces the … [Read More...]

Public Notice: NNSA announces no significant impact of Y-12 Development Organization operations at Horizon Center

AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OFFSITE HOUSING OF THE Y-12 DEVELOPMENT … [Read More...]

ADFAC seeks contractors for five homes

Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties (ADFAC) is a non-profit community based agency, … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival Announces 2025 Storytellers
  • Laser-Engraved Bricks Will Line Walkway of New Chamber Headquarters
  • Democratic Women’s Club to Discuss Climate Change, Energy and Policy
  • Estate Jewelry Show at Karen’s Jewelers Features Celebrity Jewelry
  • Keri Cagle named new ORAU senior vice president and ORISE director
  • ORAU Annual Giving Campaign exceeds $100,000 goal+ORAU Annual Giving Campaign exceeds $100,000 goal More than $1 million raised in past 10 years benefits United Way and Community Shares Oak Ridge, Tenn. —ORAU exceeded its goal of raising $100,000 in donations as part of its internal annual giving campaign that benefits the United Way and Community Shares nonprofit organizations. ORAU has raised more than $1 million over the past 10 years through this campaign. A total of $126,839 was pledged during the 2024 ORAU Annual Giving Campaign. Employees donate via payroll deduction and could earmark their donation for United Way, Community Shares or both. “ORAU has remained a strong pillar in the community for more than 75 years, and we encourage our employees to consider participating in our annual giving campaign each year to help our less fortunate neighbors in need,” said ORAU President and CEO Andy Page. “Each one of our employees has the power to positively impact the lives of those who need help in the communities where we do business across the country and demonstrate the ORAU way – taking care of each other.” ORAU, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, provides science, health and workforce solutions that address national priorities and serve the public interest. Through our specialized teams of experts and access to a consortium of more than 150 major Ph.D.-granting institutions, ORAU works with federal, state, local and commercial customers to provide innovative scientific and technical solutions and help advance their missions. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Learn more about ORAU at www.orau.org. Learn more about ORAU at www.orau.org. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OakRidgeAssociatedUniversities Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/orau Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orau ###
  • Children’s Museum Gala Celebrates the Rainforest
  • Jim Sears joins ORAU as senior vice president
  • Oak Ridge Housing Authority Receives Funding Assistance of up to $51.8 Million For Renovating Public Housing and Building New Workforce Housing
  • Two fires reported early Friday

Recent Comments

  • Raymond Mitchell on City manager’s ‘State of the City’ canceled due to weather
  • Raymond Mitchell on City manager’s ‘State of the City’ canceled due to weather
  • Mysti M Desilva on Crews clearing roads, repairing water line breaks
  • Mel Schuster on Crews clearing roads, repairing water line breaks
  • Cecil King on Crews clearing roads, repairing water line breaks
  • Rick Morrow on Roads, schools, businesses closed after heavy snow
  • Diana lively on Free community Thanksgiving Dinner on Nov. 25
  • Anne Garcia on School bus driver arrested following alleged assault on elementary student
  • Raymond Dickover on Blockhouse Valley Recycling Center now open 6 days per week
  • Mike Mahathy on School bus driver arrested following alleged assault on elementary student

Copyright © 2025 Oak Ridge Today