Argonne National Laboratory Awarded $200 Million for New Supercomputer

Photo: Peter Littlewood, Director of Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont will soon house a next-generation supercomputer expected to rank among the fastest in the world, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The new supercomputer, called Aurora, is scheduled for completion in 2018 and will be 18 times more powerful than the current supercomputer, Mira, which was installed in July 2013.

“Few national investments have the potential to demonstrate dramatic progress and capability across many scientific disciplines and domains with real-world benefits,” said Argonne National Laboratory Director Peter Littlewood in the release. “Advanced computing is a lever that drives transformational change in science and technology, accelerating discovery and shortening the time for technology to reach market.”

Argonne will partner with Intel and Cray Inc. to build Aurora. In the interim, a system called Theta will be implemented in 2016 to ease the transition between Mira and Aurora.

Aurora will be open to all scientific users, intended to attract America’s top researchers to Argonne National Laboratory.

Aurora will enable scientists to design new classes of materials that will lead to more powerful, efficient and durable batteries and solar panels. In biological uses, scientists will be able to better understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of organisms that can be used in improved biofuels and more effective disease control. It will also allow for better collaboration with industry to improve transportation systems with enhanced aerodynamics features, as well as enable production of better, more highly-efficient and quieter engines. Finally, it will be used to research ways to improve wind turbine designs.

The investment is the final of three in the Department of Energy’s $525 million collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne and Lawrence Livermore to install new supercomputers at the nation’s three national laboratories.

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