Exascale computing is the next milestone in the advancement of supercomputers. Able to process information much faster than todays most powerful supercomputers, exascale computer systems will provide researchers a brand-new tool for resolving some of the biggest difficulties facing our world, from environment modification to understanding cancer to creating brand-new type of materials.
Exascale computer systems are digital computer systems, approximately comparable to todays supercomputers and computers but with far more effective hardware. This makes them various from quantum computer systems, which represent a totally new approach to building a computer system fit to particular types of concerns.
DOE is deploying the United States first exascale computer systems: Frontier at ORNL and Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory and El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
View a video of an exascale-powered COVID simulation
from NVIDIA.
Computers have actually been increasing gradually in efficiency because the 1940s.
The Colossus vacuum tube computer system was the first electronic computer system worldwide. Integrated in Britain during the Second World War, Colossus ran at 500,000 FLOPS.
CDC 6600 in 1964 was the very first supercomputer with 3 megaFLOPS.
Cray-2 in 1985 was the very first supercomputer to reach over 1 gigaFLOP.
ASCI Red in 1996 was the very first enormously parallel computer reaching over a teraFLOP.
Roadrunner in 2008 first supercomputer to reach 1 petaFLOP.
Application Development: building applications that make the most of exascale computer systems.
Software Technology: establishing brand-new tools for handling systems, managing enormous quantities of information, and incorporating future computers with existing computer systems.
Hardware and Integration: developing collaborations to produce brand-new parts, new training, standards, and continuous testing to make these brand-new tools operate at our other centers and national labs.
By U.S. Department of Energy
January 25, 2022
How does exascale computing compare to other computer systems? That means an exascale computer can carry out more than 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 FLOPS, or 1 exaFLOP. When scientists started thinking seriously about exascale computers, they anticipated these computer systems might require as much energy as up to 50 homes would use. Researchers also require ways to guarantee exascale computers are reliable, in spite of the big number of parts they consist of. Exascale computers will assist us construct future fusion power plants.
How does exascale computing compare to other computer systems? One way scientists measure computer system performance is in floating point operations per second (FLOPS). Computers struck the terascale milestone in 1996 with the Department of Energys (DOE) Intel ASCI Red supercomputer.
The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is expected to be the first exascale computer system in the United States. Credit: Image thanks to Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Exascale computing is unimaginably faster than that. That means an exascale computer system can perform more than 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 FLOPS, or 1 exaFLOP.
Developing a computer system this powerful isnt easy. When researchers started thinking seriously about exascale computers, they forecasted these computer systems may need as much energy as approximately 50 homes would utilize. That figure has actually been slashed, thanks to ongoing research study with computer vendors. Researchers also need ways to guarantee exascale computers are reputable, regardless of the big variety of parts they include. In addition, they must discover ways to move data in between processors and storage fast enough to prevent downturns.
Why do we need exascale computer systems? The difficulties facing our world and the most complex scientific research study concerns need more and more computer system power to fix. Exascale computers will assist us build future combination power plants.
Quick Facts
DOE Contributions to Exascale Computing
These facilities offer scientists computer system access based on the prospective advantages of their research study. DOEs Exascale Computing Initiative, co-led by the Office of Science and DOEs National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), started in 2016 with the objective of speeding advancement of an exascale computing ecosystem. One of the parts of the effort is the seven-year Exascale Computing Project
.
