The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said last week it has issued a request for proposals from private industry for a new super-computing platform that will serve the needs of all three of the nuclear weapons laboratories operated by the semi-autonomous Energy Department weapons agency.
The new “capability platform” will be named Mesa and is scheduled for installment in 2010, NNSA said.
Mesa is being developed jointly under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories and will also support Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Sandia will lead the design effort and Los Alamos will lead operations
The MoU outlines a new initiative called the NNSA New Mexico Alliance for Computing at Extreme Scales, which will be devoted to providing high performance computing assets required by NNSA’s stockpile stewardship mission, NNSA said.
“This new platform to conduct computing at extreme capabilities will allow NNSA to continue to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing,” said NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino.
NNSA’s initiative follows a February 2009 report by the Defense Science Board, which advises the Pentagon, on NNSA’s super-computing capabilities. Among other conclusions, the report said NNSA needed more “significantly more resources” for its advanced simulation and computing program if it was to achieve key goals–including nuclear weapons design capabilities.
“The goal of a predictive capacity for nuclear weapons design, which many feel is essential for making significant modifications to the stockpile, is unlikely to be achieved with present program plans and projected resource levels,” the board told Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a Feb. 19 memo summarizing its recommendations.
NNSA said the project was needed to meet its Advanced Simulation and Computing roadmap timeline requirement for an “exascale” computing capability by 2018.