LANL unveils new supercomputer to advance use of AI

Apr. 15—LOS ALAMOS — Los Alamos National Laboratory on Monday unveiled its newest supercomputer, which officials say will enable them to more swiftly integrate artificial intelligence into both its national security work and scientific research.

The lab's other supercomputers have been more focused on national security, whereas this model, dubbed Venado, will link all the lab's various research programs — such as climate science, astrophysics and fluid dynamics — into a centralized, data-sharing hub.

It will increase speed, efficiency and the scope of information that can be combed and pieced together. The integrative features are groundbreaking, lab Director Thom Mason said Monday during a panel discussion with government and industry leaders involved in the project.

"It's going to allow us to solve problems that [previously] we couldn't solve," Mason said.

The development and installation of Venado comes through a collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NVIDIA Corp.

"Building these systems is amazingly hard to do," said Antonio Neri, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "This is a marvel of engineering."

Venado's computing capacity will draw on 2,560 superchips.

The superchips can execute millions more instructions per second, usually at lower cost and power consumption, than previous chip technology. according to a news release.

The computer combines high-performing central processing and graphic processing units, greatly improving its performance, Mason said.

"Our supercomputing capabilities represent a critical component of how national laboratories tackle important problems," U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in a statement. "With its ability to incorporate artificial intelligence approaches, we are looking forward to seeing how the Venado system at Los Alamos can deliver new and meaningful results for areas of interest."

This is a developing story. Check back for more details.