National Leadership Computing Facility
A Partnership in Computational Sciences

The science of the 21st century demands computational capability well beyond what is available today. These demands cannot be met by simply fielding a computer that is #1 on the Top500 list. Rather, breakthrough science and engineering requires: an architecture well suited for scientific applications; a computational environment that ensures effective utilization of that architecture for scientific discovery; a best-in-class communications network and data management infrastructure; and teams of leading experts applying this capability to critical research challenges.

The National Leadership Computing Facility (NLCF) engages a world-class team from national laboratories, research institutions, computing centers, universities, and vendors to take a dramatic step forward to field a new capability for high-end science. Our team offers the Office of Science an aggressive deployment plan, using technology designed to maximize the performance of scientific applications, and a means of engaging the scientific and engineering communities.

The NLCF will provide the nation's most powerful open resource for capability computing, and we propose a sustainable path that will maintain and extend national leadership for the Office of Science in this critical area. We will immediately double the capability of the existing Cray X1 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Center for Computational Sciences and further upgrade it to a 20TF Cray X1e in 2004. We will maintain national leadership in open scientific computing by installing a 100TF Cray X2 in 2006. We will simultaneously conduct an in-depth exploration of alternative technologies for next-generation leadership-class computers by deploying a 20TF Cray Red Storm at ORNL and a 50TF IBM BlueGene/L at Argonne National Laboratory in partnership with the laboratories of the National Nuclear Security Administration. We will also advance the SGI Altix in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These efforts will set the stage for deployment of a machine capable of 100TF sustained (250 TF peak) performance by 2007. We will work with industry, laboratories, and academia to deploy a computational environment that will enable the scientific community to exploit this extraordinary capability, achieving substantially higher effective performance than is possible today.

We will develop a comparably ambitious approach to achieving a high level of scientific productivity from the NLCF. The NLCF computing system will be a unique, world-class research resource, similar to other large-scale experimental facilities constructed and operated by DOE-SC. At these facilities, scientists and engineers make use of "end stations"—best-in-class instruments supported by instrument specialists—that enable the most effective use of the unique capabilities of the facilities. We propose to organize Computational End Stations (CESs) that offer access to best-in-class scientific application codes and world-class computational specialists. The CESs will engage multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary teams undertaking scientific and engineering problems that can only be solved on the NLCF computers and who are willing to enhance the capabilities of the NLCF and contribute to its effective operation. All CESs will be selected by DOE-SC through a competitive peer-review process. Partnerships between the NLCF and the interdisciplinary teams funded under DOE-SC's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC), Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET), and Genomics (GTL) programs to address challenges in climate, fusion, astrophysics, nanoscience, chemistry, and biology offer great potential for breakthrough science in the near term, and will be involved in conceiving the CESs.

The NLCF will bring together world-class researchers; a proven, aggressive, and sustainable hardware path; an experienced operational team; a strategy for delivering true capability computing; and modern computing facilities connected to the national infrastructure through state-of-the-art networking to deliver breakthrough science. Combining these resources and building on expertise and resources of the partnership, the NLCF will enable scientific computation at an unprecedented scale.

For more information, please contact:
Thomas Zacharia, Ph.D.
Associate Laboratory Director
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6163

Relevant Links

DOE Announcement - May 12, 2004
Leadership Class Computer Announcement
Remarks by Secretary Spencer Abraham

ORNL News Release - May 12, 2004
DOE Awards $25 Million to ORNL to Lead Effort in Building World’s Largest Computer

Center for Computational Sciences 2004 Brochure (HTML)

Center for Computational Sciences 2004 Brochure (PDF)

Center for Computational Sciences Fact Sheet (PDF)

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