Supercomputers

Direct reuse of waste heat. Aims to cut energy consumption by 40% and carbon-dioxide emissions by up to 85%

ZURICH - 23 Jun 2009: In an effort to achieve energy-aware computing, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), and IBM today announced plans to build a first-of-a-kind water-cooled supercomputer that will directly repurpose excess heat for the university buildings.

The innovative system, dubbed Aquasar, is expected to decrease the carbon footprint of the system by up to 85% and estimated to save up to 30 tons of CO2 per year, compared to a similar system using today's cooling technologies.(1)    » read more »

ARGONNE, Ill. (April 14, 2009) — Cooling a supercomputer consumes more electricity than is required to run the machine, even machines as powerful as the IBM Blue Gene/P—called Intrepid—at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. Though Intrepid is one of the fastest and most energy-efficient computers in the world, researchers at Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) are continually looking for ways to further reduce the power needed to operate the machine.

Argonne operates the ALCF for the DOE Office of Science as part of the larger DOE Leadership Computing Facility strategy. DOE leads the world in providing the most capable civilian supercomputers for science.    » read more »

Computer Simulations of Human Bone Structures Help Doctors Analyze Fragile Bones and Fracture Risk

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, July 2, 2008 -- Using a Blue Gene supercomputer, scientists of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Zurich Research Laboratory demonstrated the most extensive simulation yet of real human bone structures, providing doctors a "high definition" view of the strength and fragility of bones they never had before.

This achievement could lead to better clinical tools to improve the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, a widespread disease that affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50.(1)    » read more »

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Using state-of-the-art supercomputers, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory climate scientists have performed a 400-year high-resolution global ocean-atmosphere simulation with results that are more similar to actual observations of surface winds and sea surface temperatures.

The research, led by LLNL atmospheric scientist Govindasamy Bala, appears in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Climate.    » read more »

World’s 3rd Fastest Machine is up and running at Intel

January 28, 2008 -- RIO RANCHO – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today unveiled New Mexico’s new Supercomputer -- the 3rd fastest in the world. The supercomputer, named “Encanto” which means “enchanted,” is housed at Intel Corp. in Rio Rancho.

“New Mexico is serious about developing its high-tech economy,” said Governor Bill Richardson. “As news of our Supercomputer spreads, more and more businesses and educational institutions want to work with the state."    » read more »

Smaller asteroids may pose greater danger than previously believed

December 17, 2007 -- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The stunning amount of forest devastation at Tunguska a century ago in Siberia may have been caused by an asteroid only a fraction as large as previously published estimates, Sandia National Laboratories supercomputer simulations suggest.    » read more »

Theory and Computing Sciences Building expected to house the world’s fastest computers

December 4, 2007 -- CHICAGO – Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today announced a significant investment that will enable the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory to house the world’s most advanced supercomputers. Financed by $70 million in bonds issued by the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA), the new Theory and Computing Sciences Building will be located on Argonne’s campus in DuPage County.    » read more »

New System Aimed at Economic Development and Boosting Research in New Mexico

November 12, 2007 -- SANTA FE – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson praised today’s report by the TOP500 project that showed New Mexico’s supercomputer is the world’s 3rd most powerful. The state’s new system posted a speed of 126.9 trillion calculations per second in recent tests submitted to the TOP500 project, which tracks the world’s fastest supercomputers.    » read more »

November 12, 2007 -- The National Nuclear Security Administration’s BlueGene/L retained its number one ranking on the new Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, released today at the international Supercomputing 2007 conference in Reno, Nevada.    » read more »

High-Performance Computing and Communications Organizations Pool Capabilities to Support Vast Bandwidth Needs for Particle Physics and Other Applications

Nov. 12, 2007 -- RENO, Nev. - A group of research and industry technology leaders today announced two demonstrations at the SC07 Conference in Reno, Nev. to show leading-edge capabilities designed for the high-bandwidth needs of the research community worldwide.    » read more »

New System Among World’s Fastest, Aimed at Boosting Economy

November 2, 2007 -- SANTA FE – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today announced that New Mexico will soon host one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.    » read more »

'Orchestra' of Powerful Processing Chips Will Drive Geoscience, Medical Imaging, Aerospace and Financial Services Research

Leadership computing system promises to accelerate scientific discovery; The Cray XT4 "Jaguar" resides at the Leadership Computing Facility at ORNL

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., June 27, 2007 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) Cray XT4 supercomputer, known as Jaguar, is now the second fastest system in the world, according to a semiannual list of the world's fastest computers.

The new Top500 List was released Wednesday, June 27, at the 2007 International Supercomputing Conference being held in Dresden, Germany.    » read more »

Built by IBM, BlueGene/L (BG/L) clocks in at 280.6 teraFLOPS (trillion floating operations per second) on the LINPACK, the industry standard for supercomputer performance. BGL is a workhorse machine for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) effort to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent without underground nuclear testing, known as the Stockpile Stewardship Program.    » read more »