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HPC

Science

Igniting a New Class of Combustion Research

In a farewell nod to Titan, scheduled to be decommissioned in August 2019, we present a short series of features highlighting some of Titan’s impactful contributions to scientific research. The internal combustion engine has been around since the 19th century and remains the most affordable, reliable way to power the…
Katie Elyce Jones
August 1, 2019
Science

ALCC Program Awards 6 Million Hours on OLCF Resources

Each year, researchers are awarded computing hours at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)—a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility located at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)—through the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research’s (ASCR’s) Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC). This year, 21 research…
Will Wells
July 31, 2019
Titan supercomputer OLCFTechnology

Farewell, Titan

The Cray XK7 Titan supercomputer operated by the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be decommissioned on August 1 and disassembled for recycling. Performing up to 27 quadrillion calculations per second, Titan ranked as one of the…
Katie Elyce Jones
June 28, 2019
People

ORNL Staff Plug into Tech Day

Last month, the US Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Tech Day 2019 put federal agencies’ emerging technologies on display for the public, highlighting developments in 3D printing, cybersecurity, virtual reality, and more. Researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) were among the participants in the…
Rachel McDowell
June 12, 2019
Science

CAAR Accepting Application Team Proposals for Frontier System

As details about the Frontier supercomputer emerge, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) is seeking partnerships with select applications teams to develop scientific applications for highly effective use on the Frontier system. Through its Center for Accelerated Application Readiness (CAAR), the OLCF will partner…
Jonathan Hines
May 7, 2019
Science

New Geometric Model Improves Predictions of Fluid Flow in Rock

Deep beneath the Earth’s surface, oil and groundwater percolate through gaps in rock and other geologic material. Hidden from sight, these critical resources pose a significant challenge for scientists seeking to evaluate the state of such two-phase fluid flows. Fortunately, the combination of supercomputing and synchrotron-based imaging techniques enables more…
Katie Elyce Jones
February 6, 2019
Technology

Network Enhancement Strengthens Ties Between OLCF, ESnet

ESnet provides services to more than 40 DOE research sites, including the entire national laboratory system, its major scientific instruments, and its supercomputing facilities such as the OLCF. The network permits DOE-funded scientists to productively collaborate with partners around the world. If data is the lifeblood of a scientific computing…
Jonathan Hines
January 17, 2019
PeopleTechnology

Ready for Science: Summit Completes System Acceptance

A year-long acceptance process for the 200-petaflop, IBM AC922 Summit supercomputer at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is complete. Acceptance testing ensures that the supercomputer and its file system meet the functionality, performance, and stability requirements agreed upon by the facility and the vendor. To…
Katie Elyce Jones
December 20, 2018
IndustryScience

Pinnacle Engines Develops Efficient, Low-Emission Gasoline Engine Using Supercomputing

https://vimeo.com/304393904The Pinnacle Engines opposed-piston cylinder shown in three different views. Visualizations illustrate the generation of coherent flow structures and their collapse during the compression stroke, which leads to high levels of turbulence before combustion. Pinnacle Engines researchers analyzed fluid dynamics and combustion behavior to optimize the design of the combustion…
Katie Elyce Jones
December 3, 2018
People

Mixed Precision: A Strategy for New Science Opportunities

OLCF computational scientist Wayne Joubert successfully exploited the Summit supercomputer’s low-precision capabilities to accelerate a genomics application to exascale speeds. Since the days of vector supercomputers, computational scientists have relied on high-precision arithmetic to accurately solve a wide range of problems, from modeling nuclear reactors to predicting supernova physics to…
Jonathan Hines
October 9, 2018
People

Faces of Summit: Getting Acclimated

Ashleigh Barnes simulates metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) using the LSDalton chemistry code. Pictured left, a visualization of a magnesium-based MOF made up of magnesium ions (green) and organic linkers consisting of carbon (tan), oxygen (orange), and hydrogen (white) atoms. A carbon dioxide molecule (floating tan and orange molecule) has been adsorbed…
Rachel McDowell
September 17, 2018
Summit supercomputerScience

Uncharted Territory

Ambitious supercomputers attract ambitious users. After debuting as the world’s fastest supercomputer in June, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s (OLCF’s) 200-petaflop Summit is already demonstrating its utility for solving complex computational challenges with unprecedented speed. A recent announcement by the Association for Computing Machinery lists five Summit users among…
Jonathan Hines
September 17, 2018
By forcing airflow to veer off the trailer towards the wake behind it, the TopKit Aero System (red) reduces the base wake (blue) and increases the pressure on the truck rear, creating a significant reduction in overall vehicle drag. Image Credit: SmartTruckScience

SmartTruck Steps Up Simulations for Certification by Computation

Long-haul tractor trailers, often referred to as “18-wheelers,” transport everything from household goods to supermarket foodstuffs across the United States every year. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, these trucks moved more than 10 billion tons of goods—70.6 percent of the nation’s total freight shipments—in 2016. But this transport doesn’t…
Rachel McDowell
August 29, 2018
George OstrouchovPeople

Preaching pbdR

Since bursting onto the scene in the early ’90s, high-performance computing (HPC) has become the most productive method for exploring ambitious problems in science that require substantial computational power. Yet in 2018, researchers in the statistical sciences—fields ranging from biology to economics to sociology—have yet to fully embrace the power…
Jonathan Hines
August 29, 2018