The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab unveiled their newest supercomputer, Summit, on Friday afternoon. Congressman Chuck Fleischmann and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry responded to this historic event "showcasing American leadership and innovation in the race to exascale."
"With today’s debut of Summit, the smartest and most powerful supercomputer in the world, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has again demonstrated the strength of American science,” said Congressman Fleischmann. “Summit, in addition to offering scientists 200 petaflops of performance, is capable of performing certain calculations at exascale speeds. From the performance of scientific calculations at gigaflop speeds in 1988, to teraflops in the 1990s, petaflops a decade ago, and exaops today, ORNL continues to lead the way in supercomputing.”
“Today’s launch of the Summit supercomputer demonstrates the strength of American leadership in scientific innovation and technology development. It’s going to have a profound impact in energy research, scientific discovery, economic competitiveness, and national security,” said Secretary Perry. “I am truly excited by the potential of Summit, as it moves the nation one step closer to the goal of delivering an exascale supercomputing system by 2021. Summit will empower scientists to address a wide range of new challenges, accelerate discovery, spur innovation, and above all, benefit the American people.”
According to Oak Ridge National Lab, Summit is capable of about eight times the performance of its predecessor, Titan.
“Summit’s unprecedented power will enable scientists to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing our nation and the world today,” added Congressman Fleischmann. “When I reflect on Titan’s tremendous contributions to countless disciplines, I can only imagine the impact that Summit will have.
I want to congratulate Dr. Thomas Zacharia and his team at ORNL and extend my thanks to all the scientists, engineers, and researchers that have worked tirelessly to make Summit a reality. I look forward to continuing to advocate for our nation’s science and technology research in Congress.”