The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Supercomputing Resource Center held a ribbon cutting ceremony today to formally announce their newest supercomputer. The Cray XE6 system, named “Raptor” after the Air Force’s F-22 fighter, has the distinction of being the Department of Defense’s largest supercomputer.
The machine is outfitted with 43,712 2.4 GHz AMD Magny Cours computer cores, 87.7 terabytes of memory and 1.6 petabytes of usable disk space. Cray’s Gemini interconnect technology enables the computer’s processors to communicate at speeds up to 16 gigabytes per second. The cabinets are temperature-controlled with ECOphlex liquid-cooling technology, which reduces energy costs as well.
Raptor will play a vital role in helping AFRL researchers carry out their mission: “leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for America’s aerospace forces.” The system’s powerful processing capabilities will promote cutting-edge weapon systems design and other advanced design concepts.
The DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program will oversee access to Raptor to support the HPC needs of the defense science & technology community.