A publication of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Division, NA-121.2, NNSA Defense Programs
June 2008
NA-ASC-500-08—Issue 7
Return to this issue’s stories
Sequoia: Supporting Urgent Stockpile Stewardship Computing Needs
The signing of Sequoia Critical Decision 1 (CD1) by NNSA Deputy Administrator Robert L. Smolen on March 26, 2008, allows Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to release the Sequoia Request for Proposal (RFP) to the industry for bid. This development sets the program on a date-certain path for evaluation of RFP responses, vendor selection, contract negotiation, and acquisition of a new petascale computing resource.
The Sequoia project will deploy an 8 to 25 petaFLOPS computer system in late 2011 or early 2012 as a national user facility for Stockpile Stewardship Program needs. In addition to this 2011 to 2012 system delivery, the vendor contract will provide a smaller but significant initial delivery (ID) computing system to be delivered in early 2009 for the code development and scaling necessary for effective use of the final petascale system. The Sequoia acquisition strategy also plans to request technology research and development (R&D) roadmaps from vendors as part of their RFP responses, with an intent that the project will fund an R&D effort for the winning vendor to address identified risks and issues for the platform build and delivery.
Both the ID and final systems will support important programmatic deliverables, including weapons certification and annual assessment, the National Boost Initiative, significant finding investigations, life extension programs, complex-transforming advanced certification campaigns, and the design of experiments at NNSA facilities, such as the National Ignition Facility and the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility.
The ASC Roadmap (click for a PDF version), published in 2006, provides programmatic justifications for petascale (and eventually, exascale) computing. A more recently published ASC Platform Strategy (click for a PDF version) document responded to these programmatic drivers with a new platforms roadmap that tasks ASC to deliver the necessary computing resources. In particular, to quantify uncertainty and address mission needs of NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP), the Sequoia project will provide computational resources up to 50 times more capable than current production weapons and science ASC platforms. Sequoia will bridge the gap between current terascale Purple, Red Storm, and BlueGene/L systems and exascale systems that will become available within a decade.
DOE Privacy Disclaimer | Sandia Privacy Disclaimer | 2008-4454 W
Developed and maintained by Sandia National Laboratories for NA-121.2