Advanced Computing

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http://www.llnl.gov/asci/news/worlds_fastest.html

 

 

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IBM Builds World's Fastest Supercomputer

to Simulate Nuclear Testing for U.S. Energy Department

 

RS/6000 "ASCI White" Capable of 12 Trillion Calculations Per Second--Exceeds Performance Called for in

Contract by 23%

 

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., June 29, 2000. IBM today announced that the company has built the world's fastest

supercomputer--capable of 12 trillion calculations per second--more than three times faster than the most powerful

computer in existence today. Known as ASCI White, the RS/6000 SP supercomputer covers an area the size of two

basketball courts and will be used by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program to help ensure the safety and

reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile without real-world testing.

 

In testing just completed at IBM facilities in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ASCI White demonstrated a record

computational capability of 12.3 teraflops (trillions of operations/second)--exceeding the performance

requirements of IBM's pioneering contract with the DOE by 23%. The system is scheduled to be fully installed at

the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California by the end of the year. The Laboratory is

operated for DOE by the University of California.

 

ASCI White marks a breakthrough in computing. At 12.3 teraflops, the IBM-designed RS/6000 SP system is the

first computer to exceed the double-digit teraflop speed barrier, a feat once thought impossible by computer

scientists. It will be used by the DOE to develop complex 3D simulation tools for use in supporting nuclear

stockpile stewardship efforts.

 

The system, developed by IBM under the DOE's ASCI (Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative) Partnership, is

powered by 8,192 copper microprocessors, and contains six trillion bytes (TB) of memory with more than 160 TB

of IBM disk storage capacity--enough to hold six times the entire book collection of the Library of Congress.

Delivery of the ASCI White system from IBM facilities in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to DOE's Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory in Livermore, California will require 28 tractor trailer trucks.

 

"This is a significant achievement," said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. "Once this system is fully installed it

will be an important tool for stockpile stewardship."

 

"This level of computing power has never been achieved anywhere. It will open new horizons in scientific

computing, as we approach our goal to simulate the aging and operation of a nuclear weapon," according to David

M. Cooper, Associate Director for Computations and CIO at Lawrence Livermore. "This is the second time in our

partnership with IBM that they have exceeded contract performance specifications in the delivery of a major

supercomputer system."

 

"The completion of the ASCI White system is a significant milestone for the Department of Energy and for the

science of computer simulation," said Nicholas Donofrio, IBM Senior Vice President and Group Executive,

Technology and Manufacturing. "The selection of IBM and the RS/6000 SP for a project of this scope and national

urgency is a reflection of our unique ability to provide large scale computational power to solve the most

demanding business and scientific applications--what we call "'Deep Computing'."

 

The DOE's Stockpile Stewardship ASCI project was developed in response to a directive from President Clinton. It

integrates the efforts of the three DOE national laboratories: Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia. The ASCI

project calls for a series of supercomputers--1, 3, 10, 30 and 100 teraflops in size--to be built over a period of

several years.

 

http://www.llnl.gov/asci/news/white_news.html

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ASCI White Arrives

http://www.llnl.gov/asci-scrapbook/

 

Why would they put this oNline?

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http://www.llnl.gov/str/Sweeney.html