The Frontier supercomputer located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named the world’s fastest supercomputer! This achievement was announced on May 30, 2022 by TOP500, a ranking of the world’s 500 fastest performing commercial computers.
The Frontier supercomputer ranked number one breaking the exascale limit with 1.1 exaflops of performance or 1.1 quintillion calculations per second. Just how big is a quintillion? A quintillion is a million trillions or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. By comparison, the iPhone 13 can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second.
Exascale computing refers to computer systems capable of at least 1.0 exaflop per second or one quintillion calculations per second. Frontier is the first supercomputer to accomplish this astonishing feat. The previous highest record was held by the Fugaku supercomputer at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan with 0.4 exaflops.
One of the obstacles designers faced with the Frontier exascale supercomputer was that it required so much energy. After working with multiple vendors, developers were able to reduce the energy required.
This record-breaking achievement opens the door to all sorts of scientific advancements. “Exascale systems will provide the next-generation of computing desperately needed for the massive number crunching required for climate change research and prediction, materials design for energy technologies and fusion reactors, a stronger and more adaptive power grid, the data-driven design of new COVID treatments, rapid data analysis for scientific facilities such as light sources, and many other challenges in energy, environment, and national security” according to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. This is a big step and will be impactful for many different areas of technology, science, and research.
Three years after its initial development the Frontier supercomputer’s next steps will include further testing and evaluation. After that, it is set to be available for early scientific research at the end of 2022 and open for full scientific research at the beginning of 2023.
Here are some fun facts about supercomputers:
What was the first supercomputer?
The CDC 6600 from Data Corp. is recognized as the world’s first supercomputer. It was built in 1964 and designed by Seymour Cray. It ran at about 1 megaflop or 1 million operations per second.
How much does it cost to build a supercomputer?
It can cost anywhere from $100 million to $250 million to design and build a supercomputer. This is aside from the $6 to $7 million in annual energy costs to keep the supercomputer running.
How big are supercomputers?
The Frontier supercomputer occupies a space of more than 4,000 square feet.
Written By: Ivy Schiro
June 14, 2022
