After years of preparation, the US’s first exascale supercomputer will be in function in the near future. The device is currently being installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to the lab. Exascale systems will be essential to the next generation of high-performance supercomputing and are capable of operating at one quintillion calculations per second. This is much faster than most modern systems, allowing researchers to process massive amounts of data and conduct simulations that span fields at more rapid rates. In order to install the supercomputer, more than two miles of new power lines had to be recently installed and other changes were implemented at the ORNL to support the machine.
The Energy Department was originally planning to launch the exascale system in 2019, however, after some delays, the machine will finally start at some point in early 2022 or late 2021. The Energy Department is producing other exascale computers over the next several months, including those at Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
Read More: America’s First Exascale Supercomputer Is ‘On Track’ for 2021 Deployment
