Roadrunner System Integration and Technical Assessment Team

This team completed both Phase 1, integration of the base system (71 teraflops per second), and Phase 2, technical assessment of the final system (a petaflop per second), for the Laboratory’s new Roadrunner high-performance computer.

Phase 1 more than doubled the Laboratory’s classified computing resources for nuclear weapons applications. To complete it, the team deployed key network and input/output capabilities in the Metropolis Center and installed and tested the new production software stack required by Los Alamos applications.

For Phase 2, team members assessed the feasibility of Roadrunner’s innovative hybrid processor architecture in which accelerators are used to increase application performance in lieu of adding more computational nodes. Because the full system would not be in place for the assessment, the team used system prototypes and performance models to gauge the project’s success. The results were positive and lead to the Laboratory’s commitment to procure Phase 3—the final Roadrunner system.

Photo by Dixon Wolf, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Roadrunner System Integration and Technical Assessment Team posing for 2007 Distinguished Performance Large-Team Award. (October 2008)

Editor’s note: The annual distinguished performance awards recognize individuals and small and large teams for job performance above and beyond what normally is expected. Large-team award recipients:

• Performed scientific, engineering, technical, administrative, and/or management activities at a level far above normal job assignments;
• Completed a project that brought distinction to the Laboratory by resolving a problem that has broad impact and/or resulted in the Lab becoming the recognized expert in the field;
• Worked on a project that involved original and innovative thinking, approaches, and results; and
• Exhibited (by each member of the team) an exemplary level of skill, teamwork, and dedication well beyond normal exceptions that resulted in the successful completion of the project.