The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee has made history by breaking the exascale barrier, a monumental achievement in the field of high-performance computing. This milestone signifies the computer’s capability to perform more than a quintillion (1.1 exaflops) calculations per second, a feat that was announced at the International Supercomputing Conference 2022 in Hamburg, Germany. Frontier’s remarkable performance not only secures its position as the world’s fastest supercomputer but also highlights its efficiency by topping the Green500 list for its energy use and mixed-precision computing performance, essential for artificial intelligence advancements.
The development and installation of Frontier, a collaboration between the Department of Energy, national laboratories, academia, and private industry, including the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project, were particularly challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on global supply chains. Despite these challenges, a dedicated team worked tirelessly to assemble the supercomputer, which consists of 74 HPE Cray EX supercomputer cabinets containing over 9,400 AMD-powered nodes and extensive networking cables. This endeavor underscores the collective effort and innovative spirit driving scientific discovery and computational advancements.
Frontier is expected to revolutionize a broad range of scientific fields by enabling highly complex calculations. Researchers anticipate using Frontier to explore various phenomena, from the intricacies of stellar explosions and subatomic particles to advancements in nuclear fusion and medical diagnostics through artificial intelligence. As Frontier becomes fully operational, it promises to open new doors for scientific inquiry and problem-solving at scales previously unattainable.
