Siting the El Capitan Exascale Supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

This is episode 104 of the Let's Talk Exascale podcast from the US Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Project (ECP). The host is Scott Gibson of ECP Communications. The interview for this episode was conducted on May 1, 2023.

A special thanks to Jeremy Thomas for his input concerning this episode on the upcoming El Capitan exascale supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, or LLNL. Jeremy is the public information officer for Engineering and Computing at LLNL.

LLNL's first exascale-class supercomputer is projected to exceed two exaFLOPS, which is two quintillion floating-point operations per second of peak performance. That capability could make El Capitan the most powerful supercomputer in the world when it comes online. When the exascale era arrives at LLNL, researchers will be able to more efficiently model and simulate complex physics with a level of detail, accuracy, and realism not possible today.

As the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) first exascale supercomputer, El Capitan will enable the NNSA Tri-Labs (LLNL, Sandia, and Los Alamos) to meet the increasingly demanding requirements for ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing. It will help LLNL fulfill its core mission by providing scientists with the tools to perform the complex predictive modeling and simulation required by NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program, particularly the multiple Life Extension Programs and Modernization Programs, as well as secondary missions impacting national security, such as nuclear nonproliferation and counterterrorism.

Our guest is Bronis R. de Supinski. Bronis is chief technology officer for Livermore Computing at LLNL. He formulates LLNL’s large-scale computing strategy and oversees its implementation. He frequently interacts with supercomputing leaders and oversees many collaborations with industry and academia. Previously, Bronis led several research projects in LLNL’s Center for Applied Scientific Computing.

He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Virginia in 1998 and he joined LLNL in July 1998.

In addition to his work with LLNL, Bronis is a professor of exascale computing at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Throughout his career, Bronis has won several awards. This includes the prestigious Gordon Bell prize in 2005 and 2006, as well as two R&D 100s. He is a fellow of the ACM and IEEE.

Related links:

LLNL scientists eagerly anticipate El Capitan's potential impact: https://www.llnl.gov/news/llnl-scient...

Powering up: LLNL prepares for exascale with massive energy and water upgrade: https://www.llnl.gov/news/powering-ll...

LLNL and HPE to partner with AMD and El Capitan, projected as world's fastest supercomputer: https://www.llnl.gov/news/llnl-hpe-pa...

LLNL's Role in the DOE Exascale Computing Project: https://exascale.llnl.gov

#exascale #elcapitan #hpc #supercomputers