Back
Computing
El Capitan reigns supreme across three major supercomputing benchmarks
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) flagship exascale machine El Capitan maintained its status as the fastest supercomputer on the planet — claiming the No. 1 spot on not just one, but three of the most prestigious high-performance computing (HPC) rankings. In the 65th edition of the TOP500 List, released June 10 at the ISC High Performance conference in…
Big Ideas Lab podcast enters the quantum realm
Imagine a particle that slips through a wall like a ghost. Now imagine two particles, separated by vast distances yet somehow linked, instantly influencing each other's states. A story with two endings, both true, until turning the final page. A universe where simply looking changes what’s real. These are not thought experiments. This is quantum physics. And for decades,…
Big Ideas Lab unlocks the secrets of drug discovery through supercomputing and AI
In the world of medicine, the journey from ancient practices to modern pharmaceuticals is both fascinating and complex. The latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast delves into the evolution of drug discovery, and how cutting-edge computing technologies and industry partnerships are transforming the way we develop life-saving medications. Historically, the quest for…
LLNL dedicates El Capitan, ushering in new era in supercomputing for national security
More than 300 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees, government officials and industry leaders gathered at LLNL on Jan. 9 to celebrate the dedication of El Capitan, the world’s fastest supercomputer. The event marked a monumental achievement with the acceptance and deployment of the first exascale computing system built for the National Nuclear Security…
A look back at SC24: El Capitan crowned as LLNL’s legacy of supercomputing leadership reaches new heights
SC24, held recently in Atlanta, was a landmark event, setting new records and demonstrating Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) unparalleled contributions to high-performance computing (HPC) innovation and impact. SC, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, is the biggest supercomputing event of the year…
LLNL teams win two HPCwire awards at SC24
Two teams led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) computer scientists won Editor’s Awards from HPCwire, a leading high-performance computing industry publication, at the 2024 Supercomputing Conference (SC24) in Atlanta. Researchers at LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Cerebras Systems took home the publication’s award for…
NNSA researchers break the molecular-dynamics timescale barrier with world’s largest chip
In a groundbreaking development for computational science, a team of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Tri-Lab researchers has unveiled a revolutionary approach to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE), the world’s largest computer chip. Running on the second-generation Cerebras WSE-2 — a cutting-edge processor…
Big Ideas Lab introduces El Capitan, the world’s most powerful supercomputer
On the newest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, listeners will go behind the scenes of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) latest groundbreaking achievement: El Capitan, the world’s most powerful supercomputer. Listen on Apple or Spotify. Built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) with AMD’s new Instinct MI300A Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), El Capitan…
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s El Capitan verified as world's fastest supercomputer
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in collaboration with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and AMD, have officially unveiled El Capitan as the world's most powerful supercomputer and first exascale system dedicated to national security. Verified at 1.742 exaFLOPs (1.742 quintillion calculations per second) on…
LLNL’s Mohror honored with prestigious technical computing award
The Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC) on Sept. 3 announced it has awarded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Kathryn Mohror with its prestigious Emerging Woman Leader in Technical Computing (EWLTC) Award. Mohror, a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at LLNL and deputy director of the…
All ears on the Big Ideas Lab podcast
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has big ideas and is showing the world in the Big Ideas Lab weekly podcast that takes listeners behind the fences and into its heart. “This is where big ideas come to life,” said Lab Director Kim Budil. “To do this, we bring together dynamic teams of many different disciplines — laser physicists and materials scientists and…
Evaluating trust and safety of large language models
Amid the skyrocketing popularity of large language models (LLMs), researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are taking a closer look at how these artificial intelligence (AI) systems perform under measurable scrutiny. LLMs are generative AI tools trained on massive amounts of data in order to produce a text-based response to a query. This technology has the…
LLNL, DOD, NNSA dedicate Rapid Response Laboratory and supercomputing system to accelerate biodefense
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently welcomed officials from the Department of Defense (DOD) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to dedicate a new supercomputing system and Rapid Response Laboratory (RRL). DOD is working with NNSA to significantly increase the computing capability available to the national biodefense programs. The…
Signal and image science community comes together for annual workshop
Nearly 150 members of the signal and image science community recently came together to discuss the latest advances in the field and connect with colleagues, friends and potential collaborators at the 28th annual Center for Advanced Image and Signal Science (CASIS) workshop. Held at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC) for the first time, the…
LLNL and BridgeBio announce trials for supercomputing-discovered cancer drug
In a substantial milestone for supercomputing-aided drug design, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics (BridgeBio) today announced clinical trials have begun for a first-in-class medication that targets specific genetic mutations implicated in many types of cancer. The development of the new drug — BBO-8520 — is the result of…
DOE, LLNL take center stage at inaugural artificial-intelligence expo
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Kim Budil and other LLNL staff joined Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Secretary David Turk, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Jill Hruby, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond, DOE Director of the Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies Helena Fu, U.S…
Machine learning optimizes high-power laser experiments
Commercial fusion energy plants and advanced compact radiation sources may rely on high-intensity high-repetition rate lasers, capable of firing multiple times per second, but humans could be a limiting factor in reacting to changes at these shot rates. Applying advanced computing to this problem, a team of international scientists from Lawrence Livermore National…
Manufacturing optimized designs for high explosives
When materials are subjected to extreme environments, they face the risk of mixing together. This mixing may result in hydrodynamic instabilities, yielding undesirable side effects. Such instabilities present a grand challenge across multiple disciplines, especially in astrophysics, combustion and shaped charges — a device used to focus the energy of a detonating explosive…
LLNL’s El Capitan debuted on new Top500 list of world’s most powerful supercomputers
Three new systems currently or soon-to-be sited at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on Monday debuted on the latest Top500 list of most powerful supercomputers in the world, including the first portion of the exascale machine El Capitan. Unveiled at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany, the June 2024 Top500 lists three systems with…
GUIDE team develops approach to redesign antibodies against viral pandemics
In a groundbreaking development for addressing future viral pandemics, a multi-institutional team involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers has successfully combined an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform with supercomputing to redesign and restore the effectiveness of antibodies whose ability to fight viruses has been compromised by…
