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HPC, Simulation, and Data Science

The rapid evolution of supercomputing displayed at SC12

If the annual supercomputing (SC) conference proves anything, it is that high performance computing technology changes with stunning speed. But then, the purpose of SC is to galvanize the forces that bring about that change. SC12, held in Salt Lake City, was no exception. Sequoia, the 16.3 petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second) IBM BlueGene/Q system…

Bug repellent for supercomputers proves effective

Livermore, Calif. -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have used the Stack Trace Analysis Tool (STAT), a highly scalable, lightweight tool to debug a program running more than one million MPI processes on the IBM Blue Gene/Q (BGQ)-based Sequoia supercomputer.The debugging tool is a significant milestone in LLNL's multi-year collaboration with the…

Early science runs prepare Lawrence Livermore National Lab's Sequoia for national security missions

Sequoia, a world-class IBM BlueGene/Q computer sited at LLNL for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is exploring a broad range of science to shakeout the machine and fully develop the capabilities the system will require to fulfill its national security missions, starting early next year. Researchers from NNSA's three nuclear weapons laboratories are…

Energy companies see bright future for high performance computing collaborations with the Lab

Whether it is designing a cleaner more efficient combustion engine, analyzing energy use in buildings or improving oil and gas drilling methods, energy companies agree that Lab supercomputers and expertise are showing them ways to "think differently" and accelerate the development of new products and services. "When you have computing capabilities you didn't have before,…

Sequoia earns Popular Mechanics award

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Sequoia supercomputer has received a 2012 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine. Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q machine, is ranked No. 1 on the industry-standard TOP500 list of the world's fastest high performance computing systems. Bruce Goodwin, principal associate director for Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI),…

Sequoia supercomputer earns Popular Mechanics 2012 Breakthrough Award

The Laboratory's Sequoia supercomputer has been selected for a Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine. Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q machine, is ranked No. 1 on the industry-standard TOP500 list of the world's fastest high performance computing systems. Bruce Goodwin, principal associate director for Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI), Michel McCoy, head of…

'ShipIt Day' comes to the Laboratory

Call it a cross between a flash mob of coders and brainstormers and a little healthy competition a la "American Idol." Late last month, Lab employees participated in the inaugural "ShipIt Day," a competition-centered brainstorming marathon to develop new ideas for Global Security, Livermore Computing (LC) and Applications, Simulations and Quality (ASQ). The event took…

A drive to solve problems in all aspects of life earns Banks a presidential early career award

Whether the challenge is academic or athletic, Laboratory computational scientist Jeff Banks has always set the bar high. In the end, hurtling down a runway to pole vault to a new height and grappling with a complex computational problem to take simulation to a new level tap the same inner drive. Banks, a pole vaulter in college, notes that technical people are often…

Department of Energy awards $62 million in contracts to accelerate development of 'extreme scale' supercomputers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Under an initiative called FastForward, the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have awarded $62 million in research and development (R&D) contracts to five leading companies in high performance computing to accelerate the development of next-generation supercomputers vital to…

Lab hosts workshop with research universities to address energy challenges

To lay the foundation for stronger collaborations to address national energy problems, the Laboratory recently invited researchers from leading universities to exchange ideas and mathematical approaches for leveraging high performance computing, and to identify areas for cooperative research. "This exchange of ideas is a great opportunity to build on existing…

Michel McCoy honored with first NNSA Science and Technology Award

Michel McCoy, whose pioneering work in high performance computing established Lawrence Livermore as a world renowned supercomputing center, was honored Thursday with the National Nuclear Security Administration's Science and Technology Award.McCoy received the award for "16 years of dedicated and relentless pursuit of excellence" from NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino…

i-GATE students shine at HPCIC

Three University of Oklahoma (OU) students who took part in this year's Innovation for Green Advanced Transportation Excellence (i-GATE) Fellowship Program, presented the results of their five-week research project on the potential commercialization of a Lab clean combustion engine technology at a Tuesday symposium. The presentation was made in the Livermore Valley Open…

Lab to collaborate with NASA Ames Research Center

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC) in Mountain View, Calif., have agreed to collaborate by sharing technology and resources on technical areas of national interest, including space missions, energy and advanced computing. LLNL director Parney Albright and ARC director Pete Worden signed the agreement Thursday in Livermore,…

IBM, Lawrence Livermore researchers form 'Deep Computing Solutions' collaboration to help boost U.S. industrial competitiveness

Researchers at IBM and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) today announced that they are broadening their nearly 20-year collaboration in high performance computing (HPC) by joining forces to work with industrial partners to help boost their competitiveness in the global economy. Under a recently concluded agreement, IBM and LLNL have formed an HPC collaboration…

NNSA's Sequoia supercomputer ranked as world's fastest

Supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab passes 16 petaflopsWASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that a supercomputer called Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was ranked the world's most powerful computing system.Clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations…

Sequoia is ranked the world's fastest supercomputer

The Lab's Sequoia supercomputer is the world's fastest high performance computing system on the international ranking announced earlier today at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Hamburg, Germany. Clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second), Sequoia earned the number one ranking on the industry standard…

Lawrence Livermore teams with industry to advance energy technologies using high performance computing

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) today announced the selection of six industry projects for the advancement of energy technologies using high performance computing (HPC). Called the "hpc4energy incubator," this pilot program aims to innovate and accelerate the development of energy technology and boost U.S. economic competitiveness in the…

Lab co-sponsors North Dakota energy technology symposium

Tomas Diaz de la Rubia, the Lab's deputy director for Science and Technology, discussed Monday how high performance computer modeling and simulation can accelerate the development of clean energy technologies in a keynote address at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, N.D. The Laboratory was a co-sponsor of the "North Dakota Energy Symposium: Using Technology to…

New LLNL supercomputer tops Graph 500 benchmark for data-intensive computing

The Blue Gene/Q Prototype II, now located at the IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in New York and soon to be delivered to LLNL as the new Sequoia supercomputer for the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program, won first place on the annual Graph 500 list.Blue Gene/Q was able to traverse more than 254 billion graph edges per second (TEPS), more than two and a half…

IBM unveils BlueGene/Q at SC11

The BlueGene/Q supercomputing system that will be deployed at the Lab as Sequoia was officially unveiled by IBM in a brief ceremony at the start of SC11, the annual supercomputing conference. Kim Cupps, leader of the High Performance Computing (HPC) division, representing the Laboratory, paid tribute to the longstanding partnership with IBM and the computing breakthroughs…