Cray Inc. has been awarded a contract to build a cluster supercomputer for Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The new system, a Cray CS400, has already been given the name Bebop, and will serve as the Laboratory Computing Resource Center’s (LCRC) flagship node.
Established in 2002, the LCRC has been used by researchers in a variety of fields to advance our understanding of fundamental science. In fact, over the last 70 years, Argonne researchers have made enormous strides in the fields of fluid dynamics, protein folding simulations for drug research, analysis of advanced aerospace design, and more.
At its core, the mission of the LCRC is to provide Argonne’s users with supercomputing resources that expand research horizons, provide the training and assistance for more productive research projects, and enable larger and more complex studies,” said Rick Stevens, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences, “Supercomputers are important tools for the Laboratory’s efforts in many areas, including energy storage, new materials, nuclear energy, climate change, and efficient transportation.”
In the coming decades, computationally intense problems like climate modeling and nuclear energy simulations will test the capabilities of high performance computers as models become more granular and descriptive. Given the 1.5 petaflop power of the LCRC’s new machine, researchers at Argonne should have the computational capacity to interrogate the minutest details of complex systems, possibly paving the way for breakthrough discoveries that might advance anything from fusion reactor design to new super materials that make it possible to climb into space via elevator. Even more pressing, researchers might better understand how we are shaping our climate and provide hints to what solutions might be effective for reversing climate change.