Fire danger: Moderate
Editor's note: The Department of Energy yesterday issued the following news release announcing that Compaq Computer Corp. will build the next supercomputer in the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative at Los Alamos' Strategic Computing Complex. For information about ASCI at the Laboratory, go to http://w10.lanl.gov:80/asci/asci.html. For more information on the SCC, go to http://int.lanl.gov/projects/asci/scc/.
Energy Department and Compaq Announce
Contract for Delivery of Record-Breaking Supercomputer
Major simulation milestones achievements
also announced
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Compaq Computer Corp. [on Tuesday, Aug. 22] announced a nearly $200 million contract for delivery of the world's fastest computer to the department's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The computer is part of the NNSA's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI).
"This partnership with Compaq will enable us to develop the simulation capability needed for conducting stockpile stewardship and maintaining nuclear weapons reliability," said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.
The ASCI machine, to be named "ASCI Q," will be a 30 teraOPS (trillion operations per second) machine with 12 trillion bytes of memory, and it is expected to be operational in early 2002. ASCI Q is the latest advancement in the NNSA's Stockpile Stewardship Program, which uses science-based methods to assess and certify the safety, security and reliability of nuclear weapons without underground nuclear testing.
"The nation's security mission historically has required the fastest computers available and now has, once again, accelerated the evolution of technical computing," said NNSA Administrator General John A. Gordon. "Our new partnership with Compaq will give us an exceptionally powerful system for developing the simulation capability needed for Stockpile Stewardship. The ASCI simulation milestones recently achieved also show what dramatic advances in simulation capability can be achieved by skilled and dedicated teams using terascale computers."
"Compaq is proud to work with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory to support the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative," said Michael Capellas, Compaq's President and CEO. "This is a great example of how technology can serve national interests -- in this case, a better understanding of aging nuclear weapons. It also underscores Compaq's commitment to deliver the technology and services necessary to meet the world's most advanced computing requirements."
General Gordon also announced two recent ASCI computing milestones [on Tuesday, Aug. 22]:
*The first 3-D simulation of the explosion of a nuclear weapon secondary1, that was completed by LANL using supercomputing platforms at both LANL and at the department's Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). This remarkable achievement was completed eight months ahead of schedule.
*The successful weapons effects simulation recently completed by SNL, the first-ever 3-D computer simulation of the survivability of a strategic weapon as it encounters the radiation and blast wave that would be expected as part of a nuclear exchange.
Shortly before the secondary and weapons effects mileposts were achieved, the department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) completed the first-ever 3-D simulation of a nuclear weapon primary explosion. These achievements provide new tools that are already contributing to Stockpile Stewardship. They help raise confidence that NNSA will be able to use the 30 teraOPS system and its successors effectively in meeting its mission.
Along with these computing milestones, the Compaq contract represents significant progress in the department's efforts to move stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons from its 50-year foundation in nuclear testing to one based on science and simulation. The NNSA is developing a sequence of high-performance computers, operating systems, and software applications as a part of its Stockpile Stewardship Program, with a goal of reaching 100 teraOPS.
"Los Alamos is very excited about the new ASCI Q machine," said LANL Director Dr. John Browne. "ASCI Q will increase our capability to maintain and assess the safety and performance of the nuclear weapons stockpile while moving us toward new scientific frontiers in the simulation of complex systems. We are looking forward to our new partnership with Compaq."
The 30 teraOps ASCI Q machine is fifth in the sequence of computers built toward the 100 teraOPS goal. Previous ASCI computers include: ASCI Red, a 3 teraOPS machine at Sandia built by Intel; Blue Mountain, a 3 teraOPS machine at LANL built by SGI; and, Blue Pacific, a 3 teraOPS machine located at LLNL built by IBM. LLNL is also home to ASCI White, a 12 teraOPS IBM machine that will be the world's fastest, most powerful computer when installation is completed later this year.
Stockpile Stewardship's simulation needs, which led to this sequence of these ASCI machines, have reconfigured the U.S. supercomputing landscape. Each of these five computers have in turn held the world's speed record.
ASCI Q will be housed in LANL's Strategic Computing Complex. This building, with a machine room floor almost as large as a football field (43,500 square feet), is large enough to house two of these machines. ASCI Q will have 11,968 processors, 12 terabytes of memory and 600 terabytes of disk storage. It will be about two and one-half times as powerful as today's most powerful supercomputer (ASCI White). It would require approximately 20,000 of today's state-of-the art PCs, which are capable of about 1.5 gigaOPS, working very closely together to match the peak performance of ASCI Q.
1 Nuclear weapons have two stages: the primary, or nuclear trigger for the weapon, and the secondary, which is driven by the primary and provides most of the weapon's explosive energy.
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Don Rej and Will Fox have been selected as director and deputy director, respectively, for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Division. The SNS Project is a collaboration involving Los Alamos, Oak Ridge (where it will reside), E.O. Lawrence Berkeley, Brookhaven and Argonne national laboratories and Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, Va. Once operational in 2005, the SNS will provide scientific and industrial research communities worldwide with a more intense source of neutrons than currently available for cutting-edge neutron scattering experiments. Neutron scattering is useful in materials and biological science, condensed matter, magnetism and many other science fields. "The SNS holds immense potential for so many different science disciplines," said Laboratory Director John Browne, who created the SNS Division last year to better support the project. "As a partner in construction of the SNS, it is imperative that the Laboratory fulfill its responsibilities on time and on budget. Don Rej and Will Fox are highly capable, proven leaders who will ensure Los Alamos' successful participation. It's great to have them on board." Rej and Fox both have extensive experience at the Laboratory managing programs and projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Rej served as acting director for the Physics (P) Division before this appointment. He also has served as deputy division director, program coordinator, section leader and principal investigator for the same division, among other leadership positions at the Lab. Rej received his bachelor's degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and his master's degree and doctorate in physics from Cornell University. He holds two patents and is a member of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Materials Research Society. Rej's honors include a Los Alamos Distinguished Performance Award in 1991, a Federal Laboratory Consortia Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer in 1994 and an R&D 100 Award in 1997. Fox moves to his new SNS position from the Dual-axis Radiographic
Hydrotest (DARHT) Accelerator Construction Group, where he once
served as group leader. He also has served as group leader of
Tritium Science and Engineering (ESA-TSE) and Accelerator Physics
and Fox received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico and his master's degree in the same field from the University of Washington. Fox also is a flight instructor and member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, and builds and flies his own experimental aircraft. --Ternel Martinez |
State Highway Department repaving 'main
hill road' beginning Monday
The state Highway and Transportation Department is repaving about four miles of NM 502, the main hill road leading out of Los Alamos, beginning Monday.
The work shouldn't interfere with Laboratory employees who commute to and from Los Alamos, but periodic delays are expected during the day.
Brasier Asphalt of Montrose, Colo., is repaving the two-lane road from just west of Eastgate Road to mile marker 8 of NM 502, said Bill Diven of Proof Positive, an Albuquerque public relations company on contract to the Highway and Transportation Department.
The contractor plans to work from about 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and no work is scheduled to take place during peak morning and afternoon hours, said Diven.
The contractor will have signs and other traffic control devices set up alerting motorists to the work, which will take about three weeks to complete.
During construction, there will be intermittent lane closures and the posted speed limit through the construction area is 40 miles per hour. Flag persons will direct vehicle traffic through the work area when necessary, Diven added.
The Laboratory allows managers to use flex-time scheduling. Employees and subcontract personnel interested in joining a car or van pool can call 988-7433 or 1-888-866-6438, or go to the Laboratory's "Commuter's Corner" Web page at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/rideshare.html.
--Steve Sandoval
Free
seminar series for women starts Thursday at the Lab
"Balance," a series of free seminars and panel discussions for women, begins Thursday at the Lab.
Sponsored by the Women's Diversity Working Group, Thursday's panel discussion is from 10 a.m. to noon at the Health Research Auditorium next to Los Alamos Medical Center.
Panelists will lead a workshop about mentoring experiences, managing expectations, how mentoring works and how to become or find a mentor, said Georgia Pedicini of Computing (CIC-7) and chairperson of the Women's Diversity Working Group.
Jill Trewhella, director of the Biosciences (B) Division, will talk about the importance of mentoring. Carol Burns, deputy director of the Chemistry (C) Division, will talk more in depth about what is mentoring. And Tom Tierney of X-Ray Physics (P-22) and head of the Los Alamos Student Association will talk about what students find important about mentoring and what students want from mentors, said Pedicini.
Workshop participants can complete worksheets and questionnaires and do hands-on exercises designed to help them learn more about mentoring, she said.
Additional events as part of the "Balance" series include a career choices panel discussion from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday in the HRL Auditorium.
And from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 30 and 31, Sharon Watson of Los Alamos National Bank will lead a two-part financial planning workshop in the Cochiti Room on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center.
More information about the series can be found at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/dvo/wdwg/00summer.html online.
Individuals requiring special accommodations can contact Sheila Brandt of Occupational Medicine (ESH-2) at 5-2667.
--Steve Sandoval
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CRO/UC coordinate Lab presence at community events Roger Goldie, left, of Facility Management (ESA-FM-ESH) talks with visitors to the Laboratory/University of California information booth at the recent Festival Los Alamos at Ashley Pond. Visitors could pick up information about Lab programs, educational and job opportunities and sign up for prize drawings. The Community Relations Office (CRO) and UC coordinate the Lab's presence at community events. The booth will be set up at Spirit Days this weekend in Española and at next month's Santa Fe Fiestas on the downtown plaza. Photo by Mike Kolb, CRO |
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On today's bulletin board |
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Commuter's Corner | Parking areas around TA-3 | Parking shuttle routes (pdf) or jpeg |
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SNS Division leaders
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