The Aurora supercomputer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has surpassed the exascale threshold, achieving over a quintillion calculations per second. This makes it one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, second only to the Frontier at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Built by Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Aurora’s capabilities will transform scientific research, enabling breakthroughs in areas such as climate science, energy storage, and fusion energy. The system’s advanced capabilities for simulations, AI, and data analysis will also spur advances in technology and bolster the nation’s innovation infrastructure.
Aurora Supercomputer: A New Era of Exascale Computing
The Aurora supercomputer, housed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has officially crossed the exascale threshold, achieving over a quintillion calculations per second. This milestone was announced at the ISC High Performance 2024 conference in Hamburg, Germany, and places Aurora as one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
In the semi-annual Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, Aurora registered 1.012 exaflops using 87% of the system’s 10,624 nodes. This achievement not only secures its position as the second fastest supercomputer but also makes it the world’s second exascale machine, alongside DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier. Furthermore, Aurora demonstrated exceptional artificial intelligence (AI) performance, achieving 10.6 exaflops on the HPL-MxP benchmark.
The Impact of Aurora on Scientific Research
The Aurora supercomputer is expected to revolutionize scientific research by providing advanced capabilities for simulations, AI, and data analysis. Its exascale computing power will enable breakthroughs in various fields, including climate and materials science, energy storage, and fusion energy.
Argonne Laboratory Director Paul Kearns highlighted the transformative potential of Aurora, stating that it will “accelerate scientific discovery by combining high performance computing and AI to fight climate change, develop life-saving medical treatments, create new materials, understand the universe and so much more.”
Aurora’s Unique Architecture and Capabilities
Aurora’s architecture, developed by Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), includes new technologies deployed at an unprecedented scale. The supercomputer’s 63,744 graphics processing units (GPUs) make it the world’s largest GPU-powered system yet. It also has more endpoints in its interconnect technology than any other system to date.
The installation team, comprising staff from Argonne, Intel, and HPE, continues to work on system validation, verification, and scale-up activities. They are addressing various hardware and software issues that emerge as the massive system nears full-scale operations.
Preparing for Research on Aurora
Teams participating in the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s (ALCF) Aurora Early Science Program and DOE’s Exascale Computing Project have been preparing to run their research projects on Aurora for several years. These teams have demonstrated strong early performance gains while scaling and optimizing codes for the system. The initial Aurora projects include efforts to advance research in cosmology, fusion energy science, drug discovery, and the design of new materials for clean energy technologies.
Susan Coghlan, ALCF project director for Aurora, emphasized that while reaching exascale is a significant milestone, the ultimate goal is to enable groundbreaking science. The new performance numbers, along with some promising runs from the early science teams, provide a glimpse of what will be possible with Aurora.
Argonne National Laboratory and the Future of Supercomputing
The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility provides supercomputing capabilities to the scientific and engineering community to advance fundamental discovery and understanding in a broad range of disciplines. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, the ALCF is one of two DOE Leadership Computing Facilities in the nation dedicated to open science.
Argonne National Laboratory is committed to finding solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. It conducts leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The achievements of the Aurora supercomputer mark a significant step forward in the future of supercomputing and its potential to drive scientific discovery.
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