El Capitan: The world’s fastest supercomputer

A $600 million system that could advance nuclear security and scientific research

Image credit: Microsoft Copilot and Canva

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has unveiled El Capitan, the world’s fastest supercomputer, capable of performing 1.742 quintillion calculations per second.

Here are some key points:

• Costing $600 million and built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise with AMD chips, El Capitan is 22 times faster than its predecessor, Sierra.

• This leap in computational power allows simulations that once took months to be completed in days.

• Housed in a secure, seismically protected facility, the system spans 6,000 square feet and consumes 30 megawatts of power.

• El Capitan is a strategic tool for advanced 3D modeling and high-resolution simulations, supporting both defense and scientific applications, such as nuclear weapons monitoring, climate change modeling, earthquake prediction, and genomic research.

• Its unprecedented speed highlights the U.S.'s technological edge in supercomputing, though classified systems from other nations, like China, may rival its capabilities.