Cray, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, in partnership with the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Exascale Computing Project (ECP), and the DOE laboratories that will house the nation’s first three exascale supercomputers: Argonne (ANL), Oak Ridge (ORNL) and Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) have established National Exascale Day as a registered holiday to be celebrated annually on October 18 (1018) 2019.
Exascale is defined as a quintillion computations per second and Exascale Day celebrates the scientists and researchers who make breakthrough discoveries with the help of some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. Exascale Day celebrates those who keep asking what if, why not, and what’s next - with the advanced technology to attain the answers.
The Exascale Era will have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our daily lives – from healthcare and manufacturing, to understanding new energy sources and the origins of the universe.
What does a quintillion calculations per second look like?
-
It would take 40,000 years for one quintillion gallons of water to spill over Niagara Falls.
-
The Milky Way galaxy is one quintillion kilometers wide.
-
If all 7.7 billion people on earth each did one calculation per second, it would take over 4 years to complete a quintillion calculations. An exascale computer can do it in one second.
-
Exascale supercomputers will be roughly a million times more powerful than the average laptop we use every day.
The founding organisations of Exascale Day – ECP, Cray, ANL, ORNL and LLNL – will host a panel discussion via an online webcast on Friday, October 18 at 11:00 am EDT about how the advanced technology of the Exascale Era will change the face of computational science and the advances it will foster. Panelists will include tech luminaries from each organisation and will be moderated by Hyperion Research. Anyone interested in participating can register here: https://www.cray.com/resources/exascale-day-panel-discussion
In addition, the listed organisations and their extended networks of partners, suppliers and other parties will participate via online and social channels throughout the week of October 14.
