Jane Edwards
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched its Frontier supercomputer designed to help researchers accelerate scientific discoveries.
Frontier is the world’s first exascale computer composed of 74 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Cray EX cabinets that include 9,400 Advanced Micro Devices-powered nodes and 90 miles of interconnect cables, ORNL said Wednesday.
“Exascale computing is a powerful tool that will allow us to advance the core missions of the Office of Science — to deliver scientific discoveries and major scientific tools that will transform our understanding of nature and advance the energy, economic, and national security of the U.S.,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the office of science at DOE.
“Frontier makes exascale computing a reality and opens many doors for the future of scientific research to solve big problems,” added Berhe.
General Electric’s aviation and power business segments plan to use Frontier to advance the development of hybrid electric and hydrogen propulsion systems and clean energy technologies.
Other government and corporate officials that participated during Frontier’s debut are David Turk, deputy secretary of energy; ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia; ORNL Site Office Director Johnny Moore; Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn.; Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE; and Lisa Su, chair and CEO of AMD.
