ORNL’s Zacharia Aids the Efforts of Open Science

By Nicole Hemsoth

September 9, 2005

Thomas Zacharia, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's associate laboratory director for Computing and Computational Sciences, is leading ORNL's multi-year initiative, on behalf of the Department of Energy, to develop the world's most powerful computing resource for open science. In this exclusive interview with HPCwire, Zacharia provides updates on the lab's Leadership Computing Facility and strong involvement in the field of climate science.

HPCwire: You're giving a keynote speech at the Computing in Atmospheric Sciences workshop in Annecy, France next week. What will you talk about?

Zacharia: I'll be talking about the DOE's Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge, especially our high-level goals and expectations for contributing to the field of climate science, and about leadership computing in general as a necessary enabling technology for advances in climate science. I'll also talk about ORNL's contributions to this field. For quite some time, we've had people doing breakthrough work on the computational side and the experimental side, including things like the economic impact of global warming and other climate change. We have a long-standing relationship with Warren Washington and his group in NCAR's Climate Change Research Section, and ORNL has made significant contributions to the runs for the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] Fourth Assessment on global warming that is due out in 2007. About one-third of the simulation work for the international initiative has been done at ORNL. We're involved in a lot of collaborative activities in climate science, in the U.S. and around the world.

HPCwire: How did Oak Ridge and other DOE labs get involved in climate modeling? Where does that intersect with energy?

Zacharia: DOE has a long history of involvement in important climate science issues, such as evaluating the carbon management problem. Most scientists now agree that current sources of mass energy production and usage have a significant impact on the environment and on climate. We have recently initiated a line of research that takes predictions of global warming, in terms of heating and cooling days, and predicts energy usage and energy technology development. Oak Ridge has had a strong institutional emphasis on climate science for a long time.

HPCwire: Which areas of climate modeling and other atmospheric science is Oak Ridge involved in?

Zacharia: As I mentioned earlier, we did about one-third of the runs for the most recent IPCC simulation of global warming. ORNL has a very strong Computational Climate Dynamics group that is doing breakthrough work in coupled climate-carbon simulations. John Drake, David Erickson and others have looked closely at this. John directs the Computational Climate Dynamics group and David heads our Climate and Carbon Research Institute, which uses computational methods to evaluate how the global climate and carbon systems interact with natural and anthropogenic processes. They're trying to get a better understanding of how the Earth's climate responds to physical, chemical, and biological changes produced by global alterations of the atmosphere, the ocean and the land.

HPCwire: How does HPC support ORNL's climate work?

Zacharia: Climate science was one of the earliest and most insatiable consumers of high-performance computing resources. HPC today is a key component in simulating climate change and in performing diagnostics based on climate simulations.  Beyond computing resources, there's also a tremendous, growing need for storage of historical, contemporary and forward-looking climate data. ORNL has vast amounts of atmospheric and other climate data in storage.

HPCwire: You mentioned Oak Ridge's Climate and Carbon Research Institute is heavily involved in research related to global warming. Can you say more about that?

Zacharia: ORNL is a $1 billion-per-year research organization, and climate research is an important component of our research activities. Our Climate and Carbon Research Institute takes multiple approaches, including not just computing but also taking atmospheric radiation measurements and doing a lot of work on the economics of climate and carbon management. CCRI was formed as an integrating principle for people approaching this problem from various perspectives and disciplines. It's akin to people touching different parts of the elephant and then communicating with each other to assemble the big picture.

A lot of interdisciplinary collaboration is needed for good progress in climate science. Because this collaboration at CCRI includes economic projections and forecasts, for example, we've made better progress in predicting energy changes and demand over a 100-year cycle. Climate prediction is a classic example of an experiment you can't run in nature. You need to simulate it. It helps a lot to have many decades of hard experimental data in storage, as we do at ORNL. This is important because it allows you to run the simulation backwards in time for validation before you project to the future. These huge simulations require a lot of computational power. Our NCCS Leadership Computing Facility is an extremely powerful tool to place at the disposal of some of the world's most creative scientific minds in the field of climate science.

HPCwire: The International Panel on Climate Change's so-called Fourth Assessment is due out in 2007. I gather the main purpose is to take a more detailed look at global warming. Can you give us an update?

Zacharia: Sure. The IPCC runs were completed earlier this year. A significant portion of the runs, which in total simulated 1,100 years, were calculated at ORNL's Leadership Computing Facility using the CCSM2 climate model in a high-resolution atmospheric configuration. A couple of hundred papers have already been published on the IPCC runs, which look at climate as a function of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Among other things, the runs confirmed that smaller concentrations of these gases result in less warming.

HPCwire: Oak Ridge is heading toward petaflop computing capability by 2010. What will that make possible in climate science that can't be done on today's best HPC systems?

Zacharia: We plan to have petascale capability sometime in the 2008-2010 timeframe. Our experience, not only in climate science but other fields, is that as computing ability increases, two things improve. First, you can go to more accurate models with finer grid resolution. In climate science, people are talking about moving from today's 100-kilometer global models to 30-kilometers and eventually five-kilometer models. Second, you can add many variables that researchers don't include today because they don't have enough compute power. There are about 100 non-linear variables we'd like to see included in climate simulations. In particular, we envision a strong need to include a fully active carbon cycle inside the more traditional physically-based climate simulations. In climate science today, as in many other compute-intensive disciplines, we have to practice deliberate reductionism in order to complete simulations in reasonable periods of time.

HPCwire: You're also working on how to create and control plasma energy, which is the same energy the sun produces through an atomic fusion reaction. What can you tell us about this?

Zacharia: ORNL is one of the leading participants in the multibillion-dollar ITER project, which is a major collaboration involving the U.S. and various nations in Europe and Asia. ITER stands for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Starting in 2006, the goal is to develop, by 2016, a working plasma energy reactor based on the same atomic fusion process that occurs in the sun. The ultimate goal is for this to lead to fusion power plants to produce electricity. This form of energy is almost limitless and it's very clean. Using our new Cray X1E machine, ORNL has been able to do the fastest and most-detailed simulations to date of the waves that will be used to control the plasma in the ITER reactor.

The U.S. is making a significant contribution to the ITER project, and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and ORNL are leading the U.S. effort. PPPL and ORNL won the competition to manage the U.S. ITER project office. In addition, ORNL was just awarded the contract to carry out the Fusion Simulation Project that will evaluate the impact of the ITER reactor.

HPCwire: How are things going with the installation and ramp-up of your big Cray systems?

Zacharia: Things are going very well. The Cray X1E has been terrific. Our experience with the predecessor Cray X1 computer was extremely good, so we decided to upgrade to an 18.5-teraflop X1E. We subjected the X1E to rigorous acceptance tests, and it passed with flying colors. We already have five grand challenge projects running on it and are seeing a lot of breakthrough science that has not been possible on other contemporary HPC systems.

Our experience on the Cray XT3 has been really good so far. Cray was able to deliver it on time and we have been putting it through its paces. We also have very rigorous acceptance tests for the XT3, and we expect to accept the system soon. It's different from the situation with the X1E. We knew a lot about the X1E because of our experience with the X1. We didn't have prior experience with the XT3. We have 56 cabinets of the new XT3 installed and running, and it's already delivering new science for us. We're very excited about this system. As we get more experience with it, it will continue to improve as a production resource for our Leadership Computing Facility.

HPCwire: Will the U.S. and international climate communities have any access to ORNL's computing resources?

Zacharia: I'll be surprised and disappointed if we don't get proposals from the broader climate science community to use our new HPC resources. ORNL has provided substantial support to the climate community in recent years and I expect this to continue. DOE has set aside 10 percent of our Leadership Computing Facility resources for the INCITE program, which seeks computationally intensive research projects of large scale that can make high-impact scientific advances through the use of a large allocation of computer time and data storage. The INCITE program is open to proposals from anyone and everyone, including industry.

HPCwire: Is there anything else to add?

Zacharia: Just that we're really excited about the prospect of taking computational science to substantially new levels. It's a great opportunity for science. We are on the cusp of an era where tremendous new discoveries will be realized using computing. We in the HPC community are facing some real challenges in terms of effective software, effective hardware and effective facilities at this scale. My sense is that at the petascale level and beyond, these challenges will have to be addressed much more interdependently. It is a great opportunity and a responsibility to do it right.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire