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US Unveils El Capitan, World's Fastest Supercomputer, For Classified Tasks (axios.com) 40

Posted by msmash from the arms-race dept.
The world's most powerful supercomputer, capable of 2.79 quintillion calculations per second, has been unveiled at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, designed primarily to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and run other classified simulations. The $600 million system, named El Capitan, consists of 87 computer racks weighing 1.3 million pounds and draws 30 megawatts of power.

Built by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise using AMD chips, it operates alongside a smaller system called Tuolumne, which ranks tenth globally in computing power. "While we're still exploring the full role AI will play, there's no doubt that it is going to improve our ability to do research and development that we need," said Bradley Wallin, a deputy director at the laboratory.

US Unveils El Capitan, World's Fastest Supercomputer, For Classified Tasks More | Reply

US Unveils El Capitan, World's Fastest Supercomputer, For Classified Tasks

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  • Meaning it's waterproof so you can store it in your bathroom after you leave office.

  • Cray (Score:5, Informative)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @11:57AM (#65078257)

    For those interested, this is a Cray. HPE bought Cray/SGI a while back, and this machine uses a Cray architecture (interconnects, OS, etc...)

    • For those interested, this is a Cray. HPE bought Cray/SGI a while back, and this machine uses a Cray architecture (interconnects, OS, etc...)

      Looks like there is a Red Hat logo on the side of the cabinet.

      I'm sure there are some customizations on the main boards and things running in userspace, etc. but these days 'Cray' supercomputers appear to run straight RHEL, with untainted kernels and commodity accelerated NICs.

      (Cray systems, listed in the middle) https://www.hpe.com/us/en/coll... [hpe.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hodr ( 219920 )

      Only been 30 years, but I still think of Jurassic Park every time someone mentions Cray.

      "It's a UNIX system! I know this!"

  • Wake me up when they have Doom running on it

    • falken's maze
      black jack
      gin rummy
      hearts
      bridge
      checkers
      chess
      poker
      fighter combat
      guerrilla engagement
      desert warfare
      air-to-ground actions
      theaterwide tactical warfare
      theaterwide biotoxic and chemical warfare
      global thermonuclear war

      • Do you want to play a game?

      • How about tic tac toe?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        Let's play theaterwide global thermonuclear biotoxic chemical done war
        I'll play as soviet union.

        First strike: detonate first nukes at altitude to maximize super-EMP impact range at ground level prior to release of kamikaze drone swarn pods carrying viral bioagents.

        Primary targets Las Vegas. Los Angeles. Seattle. Washington DC. New York. All Google datacenter cities. All Microsoft datacenter cities. All Amazon datacenter cities. All Facebook/Meta, Oracle, and IBM datacenter cities. Dallas. Chicago.

  • Redundancy (Score:4, Funny)

    by TractorBarry ( 788340 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @12:07PM (#65078293) Homepage

    Well if HPE had anything to do with it, it can soon look forward to the vast majority of it's parts being made redundant.

  • Imagine ... a Beowulf cluster of these!

  • It's surprising they would put this at Livermore, in California, where electricity is Not Cheap.

    I realize the need to distribute resources among the NNSA labs of Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia, but I would think the operating / electrical costs would be significantly lower in New Mexico rather than just outside of San Francisco, CA.

    • Why would they care?

      They'll print more money and eggs will be $1 a piece.

      And your "Representatives" will still not be allowed to know what the government is doing with it. "Consent of the governed in a representative democracy" is such a total scam.

      This is just Exhibit 27881.

      • This is why we need Greenland, to cool it down.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        And your "Representatives" will still not be allowed to know what the government is doing with it.

        Legally.. the US congress has the power to know exactly what the government is doing with it. They would simply have to open an official investigation and depose all the government reps in charge of it. They can also pass an additional law mandating that the government officials disclose all information to congress.

    • It's surprising they would put this at Livermore, in California, where electricity is Not Cheap.

      I realize the need to distribute resources among the NNSA labs of Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia, but I would think the operating / electrical costs would be significantly lower in New Mexico rather than just outside of San Francisco, CA.

      Definitely political considerations are huge for which labs get the big systems.

      However, another consideration is that everywhere, including California and with PG&E, industrial electricity rates are significantly cheaper than residential rates. Often, they can be one-half or one-third or residential rates. So, the difference between California and New Mexico may not be as big as one might think for industrial users. For example, for large industrial users [pge.com], the peak rates can be 16-20 cents/kWh and o

    • I realize the need to distribute resources among the NNSA labs of Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia, but I would think the operating / electrical costs would be significantly lower in New Mexico rather than just outside of San Francisco, CA.

      Los Alamos got a new supercomputer in April 2024. [lanl.gov] Sandia got a new supercomputer in November 2023. [sandia.gov] That is probably the main reason Livermore got a new supercomputer this year.

  • The article cites "securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons" as the primary purpose, but I'm not clear on what part of that goal requires advanced simulations. Can anyone detail examples of applications for this computing power in "securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons"?

    Or are we supposed to understand that "securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons" is just a polite reminder to foreign adversaries that "we have nuclear weapons and the world's most advanced computing to help us know when

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Many simulations, be it neutron embrittlement of metals, how long a warhead can be stored before the fissile stuff has to be replaced, fallout paths, etc. Last thing you want is a nuke that only hurts the head of the person the ICBM falls on to prevent a strike that would take out hundreds of cities if their side succeeds.

    • How do you tell if a 50 year old nuclear warhead will still go boom other than setting one off?

    • there is an long list of warplans to long for this page to post

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      There are lots of things.
      There are tasks around "will this particular nuke still go off if we launch it". There are other around "how and when will this particular nuke degrade to the point where it won't be safe". There are questions around "how do we retire/recycle nukes in a safe way." there are other around "how do we ensure that our infrastructure is not compromised to the point that we won't be able to launch our own nukes when we want to" or question of "what are the avenues foreign adversary might

    • Can anyone detail examples of applications for this computing power in "securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons"?

      Simulations for NIF perhaps? People seem to forget that the NIF exists for weapons research, not a serious attempt to make fusion power practical.

  • "The world's most powerful supercomputer", no it's not.

    Tesla's Dojo AI supercomputer is 100 exaflops ("100 quintillion calculations per second"). And they have recently expanded it to 400 exaflops. xAI has another 100 exaflops. And they are doubling the size of each of them (at least) over the next two years.

    • The qualifier was, for classified tasks. Don't think the Dojo is cleared for classified tasks.

    • Tesla's Dojo AI supercomputer is 100 exaflops

      No, Tesla claimed in 2023 that Dojo would provide 100 exaflops by 2024. [nextbigfuture.com] That's not the same as Dojo has been measured to perform at 100 exaflops by any published benchmark that I am aware. Maybe it does get 100 exaflops; however, Tesla has not actually posted results. I wouldn't say Tesla is lying but El Capitan took the top position by performing at 1.7 exaflops.

      And they have recently expanded it to 400 exaflops. xAI has another 100 exaflops. And they are doubling the size of each of them (at least) over the next two years.

      So more claims by Tesla without any evidence? I would take that with a grain of salt.

  • Chrome Tabs (Score:5, Funny)

    by swsuehr ( 612400 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @02:00PM (#65078725) Homepage
    Oh good, maybe I can have four Chrome tabs open at once on this.

  • US Unveils El Capitan, World's Fastest Supercomputer

    ... and suggested naming it "The Captain".

    Thinking of this recent ridiculousness from the U.S. and Mexico ...

    (1) Trump will not rule out force to take Panama Canal, Greenland [reuters.com]

    Trump ... promised to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

    (2) Mexico president chides Trump: Mexican America 'sounds nice' [reuters.com]

    Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday suggested North America including the United States could be renamed "Mexican America" - an historic name used on an early map of the region - in response to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

  • Does anyone know why it takes the world's strongest supercomputer to, "maintain and secure our nuclear stockpile"? Or, is it rather a statement about continuing to run increasingly more detailed nuclear trials?
    • My understanding is that we can either run simulations on how the nuclear stockpile would detonate or actually detonate them like they did in the 1950s. One of these methods is safer for everyone not to mention detonating actual nuclear stockpiles might make other nuclear powers a bit nervous.
      • That makes... some sense I guess. But do they have to run such simulations continuously? Were computers 15 years ago running simulations around the clock, and for what? I just find it overly strange.

        • Were computers 15 years ago running simulations around the clock, and for what? I just find it overly strange.

          I imagine that simulating a nuclear explosion 15 years ago would be less precise than simulating one now based on the advances in computers. I doubt that any simulation would ever be perfect; however, better computers means better simulations. At what point is the simulation good enough? I don't know. Also these computers are probably being used for other purposes in addition to simulations.

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