Swalwell Praises Development of New Supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-15) praised the announcement by Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, CA, which he represents, will partner with IBM to develop a new supercomputer that will be seven times faster than LLNL's current model. The new supercomputer, to be called Sierra, will support LLNL's national security missions and is possible because of a joint collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to accelerate the development of high performance computing.

"With this award, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located in my district, will continue to lead the way and produce a next-generation computer that will protect our homeland and lead to scientific breakthroughs," said Swalwell. "This partnership will enable LLNL to fulfill its national security mission while ensuring that we are leaders in this highly-evolving technology."

Swalwell is the senior Democrat on the Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy which has jurisdiction over the labs. Swalwell participated in a hearing on supercomputing (also known as exascale computing) in May 2014.

Sierra will be housed in Livermore's high performance computing facility, and funded through the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program. It will be used to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear deterrent and for weapons science. In addition, Livermore will apply its high performance computing expertise and capabilities to other problems from energy production, to earthquakes, to medicine.

"Beginning in 2017, Sierra will be a key tool for the three NNSA laboratories in pursuing predictive applications necessary to sustain the nation's nuclear deterrent into the indefinite future without underground testing," said Charlie Verdon, LLNL principal associate director for Weapons and Complex Integration. "In particular, the machine will be dedicated to high resolution weapons science and uncertainty quantification for weapons assessment. This work promises to advance the state of the art in simulation science to the benefit of the larger research community."