The United States Department of Energy (DoE) is set to develop the world’s fastest supercomputer, called Discovery. This new machine will surpass the current record-holder, Frontier, by up to five times in computational power. The DoE has issued a request for proposals to create Discovery, aiming for completion by late 2027 or early 2028.
Discovery to Outperform Frontier by Up to Five Times
Discovery will offer three to five times the performance of Frontier, which currently holds the top spot with 1.3 ExaFLOPS. Discovery is expected to reach up to 6.5 ExaFLOPS, revolutionizing fields such as AI, climate modeling, and drug discovery. This leap in performance will support advanced scientific research and national security.
The new supercomputer will handle complex workloads with improved energy efficiency. According to Georgia Tourassi, director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Discovery will enable detailed simulations of real-world scenarios. This advancement will help solve challenging problems that are difficult to explore through experiments or observations alone.
US Aims to Reclaim Supercomputing Leadership
The announcement comes amid speculation that China may have developed even faster supercomputers. Despite these rumors, the DoE is determined to reclaim the top position with Discovery.
