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Politely, this computer exists because the DoE performs stockpile stewardship. Less politely, it exists because of The Bombs. Everything else it will do is a h

Politely, this computer exists because the DoE performs stockpile stewardship. Less politely, it exists because of The Bombs. Everything else it will do is a hobby. It is specifically designed for whatever compute needs their classified program has. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockpile_stewardship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockpile_stewardship https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/stockpile-stewardship-and-management-plan-ssmp https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/stockpile-stewardship-a... All of this capital is being spent because the test ban treaty prohibits the detonation of these weapons, but the US stockpile and its efficacy must be maintained and new weapons must be designed. So how do you know if an old weapon or a new design will work or not? Some part of the answer is real data + simulations. Lots and lots of simulations. It's why Frontier exists and why the DoE has pursued exascale compute for quite some time. (as for the real data part, it's why places like the National Ignition Factory exist, and why there's an active experimental program that exists to study dummy warheads in unexpected ways, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYdAT0v4DHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYdAT0v4DHs ) ——— Addendum, re: comments arguing that the NNSA computers are separate etc., the points raised are both true in the specific sense, but not true holistically. Quotes from the most recent report to congress, published in March 2022 about the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, Near-Term and Out-Year Mission Goals: ◼ Advance the innovative experimental platforms, diagnostic equipment, and computational capabilities necessary to ensure stockpile safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness: – Achieve exascale computing by delivering an exascale-capable machine and modernizing the nuclear weapons code base – Develop an operational enhanced capability (advanced radiography and reactivity measurements) for subcritical experiments – Quantify the effects of plutonium aging on weapon performance over time – Assure an enduring, trusted supply of strategic radiation-hardened microsystems and, The weapons comprising the U.S. nuclear stockpile are assessed to be safe, reliable, effective, and secure. DOE/NNSA’s scientific infrastructure is currently adequate to support stockpile actions. The DOE/NNSA plans to address near-term gaps in required scientific capabilities by deploying the DOE/NNSA’s first exascale computing platform in fiscal year (FY)2023 and by improving capabilities to conduct subcritical experiments through the Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments project by FY 2026. It seems they're building three of these computers, Frontier is one of them, from the budget requests and a press release, The budget request for Advanced Simulation and Computing increased to support pursuing new validated integrated design codes and advanced high-performance computing capabilities, including the El Capitan exascale system procurement. The press release, Featuring advanced capabilities for modeling, simulation and artificial intelligence (AI), based on Cray’s new Shasta architecture, El Capitan is projected to run national nuclear security applications at more than 50 times the speed of LLNL’s Sequoia system. Depending on the application, El Capitan will run roughly 10 times faster on average than LLNL’s Sierra system, currently the world’s second most powerful supercomputer at 125 petaflops of peak performance. Projected to be at least four times more energy efficient than Sierra, El Capitan is expected to go into production by late 2023, servicing the needs of NNSA’s Tri-Laboratory community: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories El Capitan will be DOE’s third exascale-class supercomputer, following Argonne National Laboratory’s "Aurora" and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s "Frontier" system. All three DOE exascale supercomputers will be built by Cray utilizing their Shasta architecture, Slingshot interconnect and new software platform. Link to the congressional report, https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022%20SSMP%20March%202022.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022... Link to the press release, https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-cray-develop-nnsas-first-exascale-supercomputer https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-c... - It does seem to me that it's an accurate assessment to say that this project exists because of the nuclear weapons research mandate. They're the same computer design, replicated. Are they using these to test/mature their software architecture? Hoping that many eyes will make bugs shallow? Or, is it something else? Perhaps it's seeing patterns where there are none, but for me the link between these projects and stockpile stewardship seems to be undeniable.

gh02t 4y ago
This is really not true, the stockpile stewardship thing is a separate part of DoE. Frontier does no nuclear weapons-related simulations at all and it does zero classified work (the space it's in/network it's on can't support it). Frontier is things like materials research, nuclear reactor simulations (for power generation), machine learning etc... whatever people propose to do on it. Compute time on Frontier is zero cost and open to almost any US researcher, though it's extremely competitive so actually getting any time isn't easy. You basically have to make a really compelling case that your proposal is a) exceptionally valuable and b) not feasible to be done on any more modest system. DoE is building (and has built) similar leadership-class computers for stockpile stewardship but it's a completely separate program that actually usually lags behind the open science machines they build. El Capitan is the system they're building at Livermore for stockpile work.
- watersb 4y ago
  Another big application is drug discovery and development, computational chemistry. I don't believe that Frontier was used directly for COVID vaccine research, but it very well could have done.
  - gh02t 4y ago
    It's on the schedule for Frontier, which is still coming online. Summit (its predecessor) was, however.
- areoform 4y ago
  I am unsure how tangled the relationships are as what you're saying can be strictly true, but I doubt that this has nothing to do with weapons related simulation. Here's the most recent report to congress, published in March 2022 about the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, Near-Term and Out-Year Mission Goals: ◼ Advance the innovative experimental platforms, diagnostic equipment, and computational capabilities necessary to ensure stockpile safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness: – Achieve exascale computing by delivering an exascale-capable machine and modernizing the nuclear weapons code base – Develop an operational enhanced capability (advanced radiography and reactivity measurements) for subcritical experiments – Quantify the effects of plutonium aging on weapon performance over time – Assure an enduring, trusted supply of strategic radiation-hardened microsystems and, The weapons comprising the U.S. nuclear stockpile are assessed to be safe, reliable, effective, and secure. DOE/NNSA’s scientific infrastructure is currently adequate to support stockpile actions. The DOE/NNSA plans to address near-term gaps in required scientific capabilities by deploying the DOE/NNSA’s first exascale computing platform in fiscal year (FY)2023 and by improving capabilities to conduct subcritical experiments through the Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments project by FY 2026. It seems they're building three of these computers, Frontier is one of them, from the budget requests and a press release, The budget request for Advanced Simulation and Computing increased to support pursuing new validated integrated design codes and advanced high-performance computing capabilities, including the El Capitan exascale system procurement. The press release, Featuring advanced capabilities for modeling, simulation and artificial intelligence (AI), based on Cray’s new Shasta architecture, El Capitan is projected to run national nuclear security applications at more than 50 times the speed of LLNL’s Sequoia system. Depending on the application, El Capitan will run roughly 10 times faster on average than LLNL’s Sierra system, currently the world’s second most powerful supercomputer at 125 petaflops of peak performance. Projected to be at least four times more energy efficient than Sierra, El Capitan is expected to go into production by late 2023, servicing the needs of NNSA’s Tri-Laboratory community: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories El Capitan will be DOE’s third exascale-class supercomputer, following Argonne National Laboratory’s "Aurora" and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s "Frontier" system. All three DOE exascale supercomputers will be built by Cray utilizing their Shasta architecture, Slingshot interconnect and new software platform. Link to the congressional report, https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022%20SSMP%20March%202022.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022... Link to the press release, https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-cray-develop-nnsas-first-exascale-supercomputer https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-c... - It does seem to me that it's an accurate assessment to say that this project exists because of the nuclear weapons research mandate.

gh02t 4y ago

This is really not true, the stockpile stewardship thing is a separate part of DoE. Frontier does no nuclear weapons-related simulations at all and it does zero classified work (the space it's in/network it's on can't support it). Frontier is things like materials research, nuclear reactor simulations (for power generation), machine learning etc... whatever people propose to do on it. Compute time on Frontier is zero cost and open to almost any US researcher, though it's extremely competitive so actually getting any time isn't easy. You basically have to make a really compelling case that your proposal is a) exceptionally valuable and b) not feasible to be done on any more modest system. DoE is building (and has built) similar leadership-class computers for stockpile stewardship but it's a completely separate program that actually usually lags behind the open science machines they build. El Capitan is the system they're building at Livermore for stockpile work.

watersb 4y ago
Another big application is drug discovery and development, computational chemistry. I don't believe that Frontier was used directly for COVID vaccine research, but it very well could have done.
- gh02t 4y ago
  It's on the schedule for Frontier, which is still coming online. Summit (its predecessor) was, however.
areoform 4y ago
I am unsure how tangled the relationships are as what you're saying can be strictly true, but I doubt that this has nothing to do with weapons related simulation. Here's the most recent report to congress, published in March 2022 about the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, Near-Term and Out-Year Mission Goals: ◼ Advance the innovative experimental platforms, diagnostic equipment, and computational capabilities necessary to ensure stockpile safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness: – Achieve exascale computing by delivering an exascale-capable machine and modernizing the nuclear weapons code base – Develop an operational enhanced capability (advanced radiography and reactivity measurements) for subcritical experiments – Quantify the effects of plutonium aging on weapon performance over time – Assure an enduring, trusted supply of strategic radiation-hardened microsystems and, The weapons comprising the U.S. nuclear stockpile are assessed to be safe, reliable, effective, and secure. DOE/NNSA’s scientific infrastructure is currently adequate to support stockpile actions. The DOE/NNSA plans to address near-term gaps in required scientific capabilities by deploying the DOE/NNSA’s first exascale computing platform in fiscal year (FY)2023 and by improving capabilities to conduct subcritical experiments through the Enhanced Capabilities for Subcritical Experiments project by FY 2026. It seems they're building three of these computers, Frontier is one of them, from the budget requests and a press release, The budget request for Advanced Simulation and Computing increased to support pursuing new validated integrated design codes and advanced high-performance computing capabilities, including the El Capitan exascale system procurement. The press release, Featuring advanced capabilities for modeling, simulation and artificial intelligence (AI), based on Cray’s new Shasta architecture, El Capitan is projected to run national nuclear security applications at more than 50 times the speed of LLNL’s Sequoia system. Depending on the application, El Capitan will run roughly 10 times faster on average than LLNL’s Sierra system, currently the world’s second most powerful supercomputer at 125 petaflops of peak performance. Projected to be at least four times more energy efficient than Sierra, El Capitan is expected to go into production by late 2023, servicing the needs of NNSA’s Tri-Laboratory community: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories El Capitan will be DOE’s third exascale-class supercomputer, following Argonne National Laboratory’s "Aurora" and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s "Frontier" system. All three DOE exascale supercomputers will be built by Cray utilizing their Shasta architecture, Slingshot interconnect and new software platform. Link to the congressional report, https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022%20SSMP%20March%202022.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/FY%202022... Link to the press release, https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-cray-develop-nnsas-first-exascale-supercomputer https://www.llnl.gov/news/doennsa-lab-announce-partnership-c... - It does seem to me that it's an accurate assessment to say that this project exists because of the nuclear weapons research mandate.