Sierra (supercomputer)

Sierra or ATS-2 is a supercomputer built for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for use by the National Nuclear Security Administration as the second Advanced Technology System. It is primarily used for predictive applications in stockpile stewardship, helping to assure the safety, reliability and effectiveness of the United States' nuclear weapons.

Sierra
Sierra Supercomputer (48002385338).jpg
ActiveSince 2018[1]
OperatorsNational Nuclear Security Administration
LocationLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
ArchitectureIBM POWER9 CPUs
Nvidia Tesla V100 GPUs
Mellanox EDR InfiniBand[2]
Power11 MW
Memory2–2.4 PiB[1]
Speed125 petaflops (peak)[2]
RankingTOP500: 6
PurposeNuclear weapon simulations[3]
Websitehpc.llnl.gov/hardware/compute-platforms/sierra

Sierra is very similar in architecture to the Summit supercomputer built for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Sierra system uses IBM POWER9 CPUs in conjunction with Nvidia Tesla V100 GPUs.[1][3] The nodes in Sierra are Witherspoon IBM S922LC OpenPOWER servers with two GPUs per CPU and four GPUs per node. These nodes are connected with EDR InfiniBand. In 2019 Sierra was upgraded with IBM Power System AC922 nodes.[4][5]

Sierra has consistently appeared on the Top500 list, peaking at #2 in November 2018 and currently at #6 in November 2022.

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ a b c Morgan, Timothy Prickett (2017-10-05). "The Clever Machinations Of Livermore's Sierra Supercomputer". The Next Platform.
  2. ^ a b "Installation of Sierra Supercomputer Steams Along at LLNL". HPCwire. 2017-11-20.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Ryan (2014-11-17). "NVIDIA Volta, IBM POWER9 Land Contracts For New US Government Supercomputers". AnandTech.
  4. ^ "Sierra - IBM Power System AC922, IBM POWER9 22C 3.1GHz, NVIDIA Volta GV100, Dual-rail Mellanox EDR Infiniband | TOP500". www.top500.org. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
  5. ^ "IBM Power System AC922 - Details". www.ibm.com. Retrieved 2020-12-15.

External linksEdit