More than 300 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employees, government officials and industry leaders gathered at LLNL on Jan. 9 to celebrate the dedication of El Capitan, the world's fastest supercomputer.
The event marked a monumental achievement with the acceptance and deployment of the first exascale computing system built for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a historic milestone in national security and scientific computing recognizing the collaborative efforts of government, industry and scientific leaders. An exascale computer can perform more than a quintillion (1018) floating-point operations per second (FLOPs) - more than one million times faster than the supercomputers used in the beginning of science-based stockpile stewardship 30 years ago.
LLNL Director Kim Budil opened the ceremony by honoring former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on Dec. 29. Budil acknowledged Carter's contributions to global security, his service as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy and his signing of the 1977 legislation that created the Department of Energy (DOE) , remarking that "in some sense, we celebrate his legacy with El Capitan." Budil also highlighted his connection to the Lab through his Secretary of Defense Harold Brown - one of her predecessors as Lab director and a key figure in expanding the Lab's computing capabilities to simulate nuclear explosions.
"Today, more than 60 years later, we are dedicating the most powerful supercomputer ever built for this purpose," Budil said.
El Capitan, capable of performing over 2 quintillion calculations per second (2.79 exaFLOPs at peak), is the new flagship system for the NNSA Labs: LLNL, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Built in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), AMD and RedHat, it features advanced technologies such as AMD's Instinct MI300A Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) and HPE's Slingshot interconnect. The exascale system represents a leap forward in computational capability for NNSA, setting a new standard for solving complex national security challenges.
A "testament to partnership"
In his opening, LLNL's Weapon Simulation and Computing Associate Director Rob Neely, who emceed the ceremony, described the occasion as "a testament to partnership," emphasizing the collaboration between NNSA, LLNL and industry leaders.
"Today, we mark the accomplishment of deploying El Capitan here at Livermore, but this story will continue to unfold as this system is applied to our national security mission," Neely said. "This is just a waypoint on a long journey, and it's then that we'll see the full impact of what our industry partners built for us, and with us, so we can solve complex scientific problems and strengthen our national security."
The ceremony featured speeches from prominent figures, including Lab leadership, NNSA officials and CEOs from HPE and AMD. LLNL Director Budil said El Capitan represents the continuation of a computing legacy built into "our Laboratory's DNA since it was founded," harkening back to LLNL's first procurement in 1952, the Univac I supercomputer.
"Our co-founder, Ernest Lawrence, pioneered the idea of big science and really bringing together multidisciplinary teams to do science at a level of complexity and a scale that no one discipline could manage on their own," Budil said. "El Capitan and its companion system, Tuolumne, stand as proof of the power of that concept."
The importance of partnership was a recurring theme throughout the ceremony. From the support of the DOE's Exascale Computing Project - a 7-year joint collaboration with the DOE Office of Science - to the collaboration with NNSA's Tri-Labs and industry, speakers highlighted how El Capitan owed its success to the power of teamwork.
HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri praised El Capitan as "the pinnacle of engineering collaboration," marking a "significant leap for scientific discovery and innovation."
AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su echoed Neri's sentiments, describing the project as "a culmination of over a decade of collaboration" and a testament to government and industry working together for the greater good.
"I am so proud of the work we've done together," Su said. "I think this really is the best of bringing private and public partnerships together to really bring groundbreaking innovations required to keep the United States as the leader in this area, and it really inspires us to continue pushing the envelope in high-performance-computing technologies."
Marking the first steps for El Capitan's national security mission
Speakers from NNSA, the Livermore Field Office (LFO) and Lab leadership highlighted how El Capitan's computational power will play a critical role in maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent without underground testing. Former LFO Manager Janis Parenti remarked on the Lab's leadership in high-performance computing and its expanded infrastructure capabilities through the Exascale Computing Facility Modernization project, which solidifies LLNL as a hub for innovation and national security.
"Procuring, installing and standing up El Capitan has been a massive, multiyear effort," Parenti said, commending the cross-sector collaboration. "Everyone played a critical role. I also want to recognize the tremendous work of Livermore Computing and its code developers who have worked tirelessly to ensure that this system can deliver the simulations we need to meet the challenges of today and the future."
NNSA's Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Marvin Adams called El Capitan a "remarkable machine" that will enable simulations critical to national security. He traced the roots of El Capitan's computing innovation back to the Manhattan Project and remarked on the importance of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program for driving HPC innovation for nearly three decades.
"It's important that our deterrent is more than the nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles," Adams said. "It is also the credibility of our scientists and our engineers, and the credibility that goes along with having this kind of facility. This says we know what we're doing in this very important technology."
