The US has unveiled the world’s most powerful supercomputer, EL Capitan, capable of performing over 2700 quadrillion operations per second. The National Nuclear Security Directorate (NNSA) introduced the new system at the SC conferences in Atlanta, where it immediately claimed the top spot in the ranking of the most productive supercomputers on the planet (top500).
The development of EL Capitan began in 2018 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Over four years, experts from Hewlett Packard Enterprise designed a unique architecture based on 44,544 AMD Mi300A processors, combining both central and graphics processors into a single chip.
Surpassing its predecessor, the Frontier supercomputer, which could only perform 2000 quadrillion operations per second, EL Capitan’s “younger brother,” Touolumne, secured the tenth spot in the global ranking with 288 quadrillion operations.
The primary objective of EL Capitan is to model the behavior of nuclear weapons as part of the program to maintain the safety of the American nuclear arsenal. Following the 1965 US Nuclear Testing Agreement, nuclear tests shifted to computer modeling for the US and other nuclear powers.
Acting deputy administrator of NNSA, Kory Hinderstein, stated that EL Capitan will generate highly accurate three-dimensional models of physical processes. Experts will be able to analyze the effects of aging ammunition and assess their safety at a significantly higher level than before.
The supercomputer will also contribute to studies on inertial thermonuclear fusion. Its computing capabilities will be utilized to train artificial intelligence systems for both research fields.
Scientists have already begun adjusting their programs to the new system and have noted remarkable results. According to computing physicist Luke Peterson, tasks that previously took several months are now completed within days.