A publication of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Division, NA-121.2, NNSA Defense Programs
June 2009
NA-ASC-500-09—Issue 11
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Los Alamos (LANL) Hosts 2009 Weapons Science Capability Review
The third annual meeting of the Weapons Science Capability Review was held this Spring at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in which the Weapons Physics Directorate hosted an external committee of reviewers to assess the quality of science, technology, and engineering within capabilities supporting weapons science. The ASC Program was well represented at this three-day meeting.
LANL ASC Program Director John Hopson noted the successful Roadrunner project and the new advanced computing alliance with Sandia National Laboratories to site a new major computing machine called ZIA. Bill Archer, Integrated Codes Program Manager, reviewed LANL’s work to develop a code framework to capture the key algorithms commonly used in weapons performance codes while providing for future application and model development. Roadrunner Project Director Andy White gave an overview of the Roadrunner hardware, the open-science investigations being executed to prepare for full-scale operations, and the new paradigm for programming that is required on the heterogeneous architecture.
Paul Henning, R&D Scientist at LANL, talked about the significant effort going on in compiler development, operating system design, and other core computer science activities required to address the heterogeneous platforms and develop programming models for future hardware. Henning reported that Los Alamos is participating in important alliances with vendors as well as academia and has established centers that will focus on advanced architectures. R&D Scientist Tim Germann introduced an LDRD project that couples integration of large-scale parallel molecular dynamics simulations with the accelerated molecular dynamics algorithms.
The Weapons Science Capability Review Committee concluded:
The new Roadrunner hardware achieved its goal of exceeding the petaFLOP level of computing capability and progress is being made to adapt this capability to weapons science. These are significant achievements in a complex and challenging multiyear effort.
— May 2008
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