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U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announces plan to build most powerful computer in the world at ORNL

The computer is expected to debut in 2021 with a performance of greater than 1.5 exaflops.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, among other leaders, announced a contract to build the Frontier supercomputer on Tuesday at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

The computer is anticipated to debut as the world's most powerful with a performance of greater than 1.5 exaflops, a news release from ORNL said Tuesday.

The $600 million contract with Cray Inc. is expected to deliver the computer in 2021, the release said. Acceptance is anticipated in 2022.

The contract includes technology development funding, a center of excellence, several early-delivery systems, the main Frontier system and multi-year systems support.

"Frontier will accelerate innovation in science and technology and maintain U.S. leadership in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence," the release said. 

Perry echoed that message during his address, "Advanced Manufacturing for a New American Energy Era."

"One of our greatest challenges comes from the aggressive nations that are out there," Perry said during his address. 

"This is the next-generation exascale machine, and it will be built right here at Oak Ridge National Lab." 

"This is a big day," Perry continued. 

The computer will be able to solve calculations up to 50 times faster than today’s top supercomputers—exceeding a quintillion, or 10 to the 18th, calculations per second.

"The message that the United States is sending is that we're going to lead the world," Perry said during his speech. "We're going to lead the world in super-computing, we're going to lead the world in exascale computing. My bumper sticker is 'whoever gets to quantum computing first, wins,' and we intend to win." 

The computer, as a second-generation AI system, follows its ORNL predecessor, the 2018 Summit system.

The new supercomputer is expected to enable researchers to make significant breakthroughs in "scientific discovery, energy assurance, economic competitiveness, and national security," the release said, with new deep learning, machine learning and data analytics abilities that will range in use from manufacturing to human health. 

"The system will be based on Cray’s new Shasta architecture and Slingshot interconnect and will feature high-performance AMD EPYC CPU and AMD Radeon Instinct GPU technology," the release said.

RELATED: East TN home to its own Super Computer

The Frontier supercomputer will join the ranks of ORNL's former supercomputers, which the lab has had since 2005, including Jaguar, Titan and now Summit. Each has been the world's fastest supercomputer in its time, according to the release from ORNL. 

"The combination of traditional processors with graphics processing units to accelerate the performance of leadership-class scientific supercomputers is an approach pioneered by ORNL and its partners and successfully demonstrated through ORNL’s No.1 ranked Titan and Summit supercomputers," ORNL said.

ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in the release that the new supercomputer will follow in the footsteps of those supercomputers to continue to provide an advanced exascale system "ready for science."

“ORNL’s vision is to sustain the nation’s preeminence in science and technology by developing and deploying leadership computing for research and innovation at an unprecedented scale,” he said.

Researchers are currently developing exascale scientific applications on ORNL’s 200-petaflop Summit system, ORNL said, and "will seamlessly transition" to Frontier in 2021.

ORNL's Center for Accelerated Application Readiness is also currently accepting proposals from scientists to prepare their codes to run on Frontier.

Governor Bill Lee and Randy Boyd were also in attendance at the Innovation XLab Advanced Manufacturing Summit in Oak Ridge.

Perry joined Congressman Chuck Fleischmann and lab officials to break ground on a $95 million research facility.

The Translation Research Capability will have lab space for scientists like Athena Sefat to work on quantum computing.

"How can we modify the atoms within a battery to make it more efficient so you don't have to recharge the batteries as often?" Sefat said.

Perry says he's looking forward to the future.

"Nobody is stronger or better than our national labs," Perry said.

Perry and other DOE leaders will also tour the lab exhibits, facilities and technology Tuesday. A news release from the Innovation XLab Advanced Manufacturing Summit states attendees “hope to explore new solutions to manufacturing challenges and opportunities.”

RELATED: At ORNL, Energy Sec. Perry addresses DOE budget cut concerns

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a Department of Energy lab. It’s also home to an abundance of resources and technology, including the world’s fastest supercomputer named "Summit." According to the 'The top 500 List" this super-fast, supercomputer brings the title of 'world's fastest computer' back to the U.S. for the first time in six years.

Governor Bill Lee will also deliver a speech during the Technology Showcase Network Reception at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.



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