The Laboratory also leads in the development of data management and visualization tools. Through the Department of Energy's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, Los Alamos intends to increase its computing capacity, now estimated at more than one trillion calculations per second, or one teraflops, to 100 teraflops by 2004. At the same time, the Laboratory is focusing more efforts on how best to use computer modeling and simulation for predictive purposes.
Los Alamos' computing power was developed originally for its defense mission, but increasingly is used to solve problems vital to the national economy and global security. The challenges of working with massive amounts of data present increasing opportunities to solve heretofore insoluble problems. On the defense side, these problems include combating threats of proliferation, terrorism and information warfare; tracking nuclear materials from dismantled weapons; and creating archives of nuclear weapons test data. On the civilian side, they include following the spread of HIV, flu and other viruses; creating comprehensive models of global climate to help predict future carbon dioxide impacts; simulating the spread of wildfires in real time; and modeling urban transportation systems to reduce congestion and pollution. Los Alamos computer scientists have helped the federal government reduce fraud and error in Medicare and income taxes. They work with the private sector as well: helping the oil industry analyze seismic data to improve oil recovery from existing wells; the automobile industry to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines; and the financial industry to reduce credit card fraud.
Before World War II, scientific research primarily relied on experimental and analytical techniques. During the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos developed new numerical techniques that were needed to enter the unexplored territory of computational physics. An early supercomputer, "MANIAC," was built at Los Alamos in the early 1950s, based on the ideas of computer genius John von Neumann. Over the years, Los Alamos has supported and advanced the efforts of commercial companies such as Silicon Graphics/Cray Research and IBM. The first Cray supercomputer ever manufactured was installed at Los Alamos in 1976 and subsequent Cray machines were improved based on the lessons learned here.
Los Alamos' Advanced Computing Laboratory, which houses supercomputers and work stations in an environment open to industrial and academic partners, serves as a catalyst for innovative, interdisciplinary computer experimentation.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.