Archive of past stories
Mira, Mira (April 25, 2012)
The Blue Gene/Q supercomputer known as Mira is set to arrive
at Argonne National Laboratory in the latter half of 2012.
At 10 petaflops, it will about about 20 times more powerful
than the current-generation Blue Gene/P, opening up new
possibilities for scientific computing.
Full story
Game on (December 28, 2011)
Scientific simulations are running even faster, thanks to the
growing use of graphics processing units – GPUs,
first developed for gaming – in supercomputing.
GPUs improve image processing and energy savings as machine
power and application complexity grow.
Full story
Power to go (October 12, 2011)
High-performance computing is boosting a promising new battery
technology that may make electric cars a practical alternative
to gas. Using millions of processor hours, researchers already
have made a surprising discovery.
Full story
Adding exascale to energy (August 11, 2011)
It’ll take the power of a new generation of computers to address
a range of issues in basic energy sciences, researchers say, but the
payoff could be materials and processes important for improving energy
efficiency, conversion and storage.
Full story
Simulating life (March 14, 2011)
Simulating biology from the subcellular to the whole human
will require a big-picture view made possible only through
exascale computing. New hardware, software and algorithms
will be necessary to crunch massive amounts of data while
avoiding bottlenecks.
Full story
Super shakeup (December 16, 2010)
When the Big One hits the West Coast, no one knows how much damage
it will cause where millions of people live. Southern California
Earthquake Center researchers are using millions of processing
hours at the nation’s largest supercomputers to hazard
the most educated of guesses.
Full story
Catching rays (October 14, 2009)
Free electron lasers generate powerful X-rays that can probe matter
directly at the atomic level and hold the potential to address a host
of research challenges in physics, chemistry and material and biological
sciences. But before these tricky, costly lasers are built, a team
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is enlisting supercomputing
to shed light on optimal designs.
Full story
Future flames (September 15, 2009)
Ultra-lean premixed flames hold promise for boosting efficiency and
cutting emissions in thousands of boilers, furnaces and turbines,
but they’re often unstable and subject to quenching. Detailed
computer models are helping researchers understand and improve these
complex chemical reactions.
Full story
Causing a stir (August 17, 2009)
Sandia National Laboratory scientists use one of the world’s
most powerful computers to decipher turbulent flows in flames –
a key factor in understanding and improving combustion, which is still
likely to be the world’s main energy source for decades.
Full story
Hard target (June 1, 2009)
Concrete may be as common as dirt today, but much of what’s known about
pouring this vital material is based on the gut feelings
of experienced crews. Now computer models are illuminating what influences
flow and how that affects stress and environmental impact.
Full story
Power from plants (February 26, 2009)
The woody material in plant stems and leaves could be an abundant source
of ethanol if an economical way can be found to break it into sugars.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are deploying massive computer
resources to decipher this obstacle.
Full story
Moving mounds of data (February 12, 2009)
The increasing power of high-performance computers has created a parallel
increase in the data they process and produce. But moving mountains of
data can lead to bottlenecks that limit computers’ speed. Researchers
are finding ways to break those barriers.
Full story
Hot stuff (August 13, 2007)
A computer simulation will show how new, efficient nuclear power plants can
keep their cool. The project will use a grant of 1 million processor hours
from the Department of Energy’s INCITE program.
Full story
Star material (July 2, 2007)
A simulation of the deaths of massive stars is shedding
light on the origin of everything, from the iron in our
blood to the planet we live on.
Full story
Speed bump (April 16, 2007)
Computer scientists helped bump up the speed with which a combustion simulation program
ran by as much as 10 times. The simulation ran on some of the world’s most
powerful high-performance computers.
Full story