Fastest Supercomputer to Ever Exist Breaks the 'Exascale' Barrier

For the first time, a supercomputer has officially broken the exaflop ceiling and become the most powerful computer to ever exist. 

The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was able to demonstrate performance of more than 10^18 operations per second on a standard test called the TOP500 that ranks the 500 most powerful commercially available computer systems, according to the organization.

High expectations were set for Frontier in 2019, when its construction was first announced. Now, three years later, it is in its final testing phases with plans to fully open in early 2023.

“Science today is driven by simulation,” said Jack Dongarra, a distinguished professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee who helps lead the TOP500. “Simulation is done on supercomputers, and it's often said that the fastest supercomputer can drive the best science.”

One of the biggest challenges to designing an exascale supercomputer like Frontier was figuring out how to lower energy costs. Initially, researchers predicted these machines might use the same amount of energy as 50 homes; working with vendors to lower the amount of energy required got the computer’s power down to roughly 20 megawatts per exaflop, or under a tenth of early estimates.

This milestone for Frontier makes strides toward fulfilling the Department of Energy’s 2018 promise to build a trio of exascale computers at Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Livermore National Laboratories, budgeting up to $1.8 million for the entire project. These computers will enable modeling and forecasting at precisions never before seen that will drive innovation forward in medicine, engineering, and nuclear energy, Dongarra said; exascale technology can even improve financial risk modeling and animation, he added.

These incredibly powerful systems will eventually be complemented by quantum computers, which are better than these traditional supercomputers at solving certain types of problems (for instance, those relating to cryptography.) In the future, Dongarra said he could foresee integrating components that drive traditional supercomputing and quantum computing to power a computer that can quickly solve both types of problems. 

When Frontier is up and running, it will function like a crystal ball for modelers and forecasters, Dongarra said. Still, it’s nowhere near the final destination for supercomputing.

“This is not the end of the story,” he said. “It's the continuation of a road where we will build bigger and faster supercomputers to help us solve some of the most challenging problems that we have today.”