El Capitan High Performance Computing

High Performance Computing in Service of National Security

As the National Nuclear Security Administration’s first exascale supercomputer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) El Capitan is projected to be capable of more than two quintillion (10¹⁸) calculations per second at peak performance. This unprecedented power contributes to LLNL, Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories’ efforts to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile without underground nuclear testing.

Along with stockpile stewardship, El Capitan will be used to support work that provides the nation with a competitive edge in complex high-fidelity modeling and simulation as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning codes that can be applied to national security, materials discovery and inertial confinement fusion. El Capitan’s “sister” system Tuolumne — sited as part of the project — will support open science and can be applied to challenges such as drug discovery, climate change and earthquake modeling.

Still image from a 3D MARBL simulation of the N210808 "Burning Plasma" shot at the National Ignition Facility.

Breaking the ICE: ICECap Looks to Use Exascale Fusion Simulations to Pioneer Digital Design

A groundbreaking multidisciplinary team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers is combining the power of exascale computing with AI, advanced workflows and graphics processor (GPU)-acceleration to advance scientific innovation and revolutionize digital design. The project, called ICECap (Inertial Confinement on El Capitan), is a transformative approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) design optimization targeted primarily for El Capitan, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) first exascale computer.

A black and white photo showing people gathered around a large computer control panel, the second in color showing the massive El Capitan supercomputer.

Big Ideas Podcast: The History of LLNL Supercomputing

Since Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) infancy, supercomputing has played an integral role in propelling mission-oriented scientific discovery. From the UNIVAC 1 to the exascale-class El Capitan, these computing wonders have gotten light-years more technologically advanced, efficient and incredibly powerful. Listen to the podcast now on Spotify.

A biologist performs experiments in the new Rapid Response Laboratory.

LLNL, DOD, NNSA Dedicate Rapid Response Laboratory and Supercomputing System to Accelerate Biodefense

The Department of Defense (DOD) is working with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to significantly increase the computing capability available to the national biodefense programs. The collaboration has enabled expanding systems of the same architecture as LLNL’s upcoming exascale supercomputer, El Capitan. These systems will provide unique capabilities for large-scale simulation and AI-based modeling for a variety of biodefense activities, including biosurveillance, threat characterization, advanced materials development and accelerated medical countermeasures.

LLNL's El Capitan Debuted on the New Top500 List of the World's Most Powerful Supercomputers

Three new systems currently or soon-to-be sited at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) debuted on the latest Top500 list of most powerful supercomputers in the world. Unveiled at the International Supercomputing Conference, the June 2024 Top500 one computing rack each from El Capitan’s “Early Delivery System” (EDS), LLNL’s newest unclassified supercomputer RZAdams and its unclassified “sister” system Tuolumne.

A 2D MARBL simulation of the N210808 “Burning Plasma” shot performed at the National Ignition Facility at the onset of ignition. This calculation consists of 19 million high-order quadrature points and ran on rzAdams (on AMD MI300A GPUs).

LLNL Team Accelerates Multi-Physics Simulations with El Capitan Predecessor Systems

Researchers at LLNL have achieved a milestone in accelerating and adding features to complex multi-physics simulations run on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), a development that could advance high performance computing and engineering. The team’s efforts have centered around the development of MARBL, a next-generation multi-physics code, for GPUs.