EXASCALE

The fastest supercomputers in the world solve problems at the petascale-that is a quadrillion calculations each second. While these petascale systems are quite powerful, the next milestone in computing achievement is the exascale- a higher level of performance in computing that will have profound impacts on everyday life. At a quintillion calculations each second, exascale supercomputers will more realistically simulate the processes involved in precision medicine, regional climate, the unseen physics in materials discovery and design, forces of the universe and much more. Exascale computing has the potential to drive discoveries across the spectrum of scientific fields and to improve both our understanding of the world and how we live in it. Advancements in economic comptetitivness, scientific discovery and strengthening our national security are just some of what can be expected. The world's first exascale computers, capable of performing a billion billion operations per second, has been built by Oak Ridge. National Laboratory in Tennessee. The exaflop machine called Frontier could help solve a range of complex scientific problems, such as accurate climate modeling, nuclear fusion simulating and drug discovery. With Frontier's exascale capability, researchers aim to simulate how stars explode, calculate the properties of subatomic particles, investigate new energy sources such as nuclear fusion and harness artificial intelligence to improve the diagnosis and prevention of disease, among many other research topics. Frontier features a theoretical peak performing two exaflops or two quintillion calculations per second. Frontier is ushering in a new era of exascale computing to solve the world's biggest scientific challenges.