Sept. 30, 2020 — The National Nuclear Security Administration’s new system features the HPE Cray EX supercomputer using future Intel Xeon processors to simulate nuclear weapons and maintain safety of stockpile

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced it is building a new supercomputer with quadrupled performance for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The new system will support critical modeling and simulation of nuclear weapons at high 3D resolutions to ensure reliability and security of the nuclear stockpile.

The NNSA’s new system, which it has named “Crossroads,” will replace the existing Cray-based system, Trinity, to advance current and planned future research. The new system will be delivered in the spring of 2022 and hosted at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It will be used by the three NNSA national laboratories: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories during 2022 – 2026.

The Crossroads system, which is a $105 million deal with HPE, will be powered by the HPE Cray EX supercomputer, a high-performance computing (HPC) architecture that is purpose-built for next-generation supercomputing and ideally suited for large-scale systems requiring the greatest performance, density, and efficiency. It will also feature future Intel Xeon processors code-named “Sapphire Rapids” for powerful next-generation compute and AI-accelerated capabilities that target and optimize emerging applications needed for advancing NNSA research, including 3D modeling at higher resolutions.

“HPE has a long history in designing a number of HPC systems for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and today’s announcement further builds on our commitment to deliver powerful and diverse architectures required for critical research missions in maintaining the reliability and security of the nation’s nuclear stockpile,” said Bill Mannel, vice president and general manager, HPC, at HPE. “In this collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, we are significantly advancing existing resources for NNSA research with the HPE Cray EX supercomputer, which combines the Cray Shasta architecture and industry-leading HPC software and networking interconnect. We are also quadrupling performance with combined technologies featuring advanced compute, I/O, memory, networking and software to enable faster and more efficient performance for current and future projects.”

Continuing Historical Success of Supercomputing for the National Nuclear Security Administration

HPE, along with Cray, has worked closely with the DOE’s national laboratories for decades to provide advanced and diverse HPC solutions that support the NNSA in ensuring the nation’s nuclear stockpile is safe, secure and effective.

In addition to the Crossroads system at Los Alamos National Laboratory, HPE is the provider of choice for additional systems to support other DOE missions, including the upcoming exascale systems, Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory, Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“This machine will advance our ability to study the most complex physical systems for science and national security. We look forward to its arrival and deployment,” said Jason Pruet, Program Director for the Advanced Simulating and Computing Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“Sandia is pleased to be part of the ACES team, and we anticipate that the Crossroads supercomputer will be highly efficient at running the largest physics and engineering calculations in support our Nation’s nuclear deterrent,” said S. Scott Collis, Director, Center for Computing Research at Sandia National Laboratories.