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China passes U.S. in number of top supercomputers; ORNL’s Titan drops to 5th

Posted at 9:49 am November 13, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pictured above. (Photo by ORNL/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

China has passed the United States in the total number of top ranked supercomputers, and Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has dropped from fourth to fifth on the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.

The TOP500 list is released twice a year, once in June and once in November. It is based on a benchmark test known as Linpack.

Titan at ORNL dropped from third to fourth in June, bumped from the number three spot by the upgraded Piz Daint, a Cray XC50 system installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. Titan is capable of 17.59 petaflops. A petaflop is one quadrillion calculations per second. That’s 1,000 trillion calculations per second. Piz Daint is capable of 19.59 petaflops.

That power is useful in scientific research. At ORNL, Titan is used for research in areas such as materials science, nuclear energy, combustion, and climate science. ORNL is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory.

Titan slipped one more spot in this month’s list, from fourth to fifth. It was displaced by the upgraded Gyoukou supercomputer. That is a ZettaScaler-2.2 system capable of 19.14 petaflops and deployed at Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the home of the Earth Simulator. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, China, Cori, Cray XC40, Cray XC50, Gyoukou, IBM BlueGene/Q, Japan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Milky Way-2, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, National Supercomputing Center, National University of Defense Technology, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Piz Daint, Sandia National Laboratories, Sequoia, summit, Sunway TaihuLight, supercomputers, Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Tianhe-2, Titan, Titan supercomputer, Top500, Top500 List, TOP500 ranking, Trinity, U.S. Department of Energy, United States, ZettaScaler-2.2

‘Atomic switcheroo’ explains origins of thin-film solar cell mystery

Posted at 10:40 am May 4, 2014
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Current Maps

Cross-sectional electron beam-induced current maps show the difference in cadmium telluride solar cells before (pictured above) and after (below) cadmium chloride treatment. The increased brightness after treatment indicates higher current collection at the grain boundaries. (Submitted photo)

Treating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cell materials with cadmium-chloride improves their efficiency, but researchers have not fully understood why. Now, an atomic-scale examination of the thin-film solar cells led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has answered this decades-long debate about the materials’ photovoltaic efficiency increase after treatment.

A research team from ORNL, the University of Toledo, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory used electron microscopy and computational simulations to explore the physical origins of the unexplained treatment process. The results are published in Physical Review Letters, or PRL.

Thin-film CdTe solar cells are considered a potential rival to silicon-based photovoltaic systems because of their theoretically low cost per power output and ease of fabrication. Their comparatively low historical efficiency in converting sunlight into energy, however, has limited the technology’s widespread use, especially for home systems. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Andrew Lupini, cadmium-chloride, cadmium-telluride, CdTe, cell efficiency, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Chen Li, chlorine, CNMS, DOE, energy, Grain-Boundary-Enhanced Carrier Collection in CdTe Solar Cells, Jonathan Poplawsky, Mark Oxley, Mowafak Al-Jassim, Naba Paudel, Nanoscale Science Research Centers, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, NSRC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Ohio Research Scholar Program, ORNL, Physical Review Letters, PRL, Sarah Haigh, solar cell, Stephen Pennycook, sunlight, SunShot Initiative, tellurium, Timothy Pennycook, U.S. Department of Energy, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, University of Manchester, University of Oxford, University of Tennessee, University of Toledo, Vanderbilt University, Wanjian Yin, Yanfa Yan, Yelong Wu

Neutrons, electrons, and theory reveal secrets of natural gas reserves

Posted at 11:10 pm October 28, 2013
By Oak Ridge National Laboratory Leave a Comment

Scanning Electronic Microscope Image of Unconventional Gas Reservoir

A scanning electron microscope image illustrating mineralogy and texture of an unconventional gas reservoir. Note that nanoporosity is not resolvable with this image. SANS and USANS analysis is required to quantify pore size distribution and interconnectivity. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Gas and oil deposits in shale have no place to hide from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technique that provides an inside look at pores and reveals structural information potentially vital to the nation’s energy needs.

The research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory could clear the path to the more efficient extraction of gas and oil from shale, environmentally benign and efficient energy production from coal, and perhaps viable carbon dioxide sequestration technologies, according to Yuri Melnichenko, an instrument scientist at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science Tagged With: absorption, adsorption, carbon dioxide, coal, Cristian Contescu, electron microscopy, energy, Eugene Mamontov, gas, gas reservoir, General Purpose SANS, HFIR, High Flux Isotope Reactor, Hongxin Zhang, James Morris, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Lilin He, Materials Science and Technology Division, Matthew Chisholm, Matthew Stone, Modern approaches to studying gas adsorption in nanoporous carbons, nanoporous carbon, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, natural gas, neutron scattering, Nidia Gallego, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, oil deposits, ORNL, pores, Raina Olsen, scanning electronic microscope, sequestration, shale, ShaRE User Facility, Spallation Neutron Source, Stephen Pennycook, U.S. Department of Energy, Valentino Cooper, Yungok Ihm, Yuri Melnichenko

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Classifieds

Public notice: Draft environmental assessment for Y-12 Development Organization at Horizon Center

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

Public Notice: Final environmental assessment available for Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12

AVAILABILITY OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING FACILITY AT THE Y-12 … [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 … [Read More...]

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