World's fastest supercomputer, "El Capitan," goes online to safeguard US nuclear weapons

El Capitan, the fastest supercomputer, safeguards US nuclear weapons with 2.746 exaFLOPS, using AMD EPYC Genoa CPUs and CDNA3 GPUs.

: El Capitan, the world's fastest supercomputer, is now operational at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It boasts a peak performance of 2.746 exaFLOPS, utilizing over 11 million cores integrated into 43,000+ AMD Instinct MI300A accelerators. Developed over eight years with a $600 million investment, it replaces the Sierra supercomputer. Named after Yosemite's famous rock, it's critical for US nuclear security and advanced research tasks.

El Capitan, now operational at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is the world's fastest supercomputer. Announced this month, it culminates eight years of development to protect the US nuclear stockpile and aid in classified research, achieving a peak performance of 2.746 exaFLOPS.

The system is powered by over 11 million cores across 43,000+ AMD Instinct MI300A accelerators. Each MI300A features an EPYC Genoa 24-core CPU and a CDNA3 GPU, and collectively, they demonstrate remarkable computational capabilities far surpassing the Sierra supercomputer's capabilities.

This project, part of the U.S. Department of Energy's CORAL-2 program, was commissioned to secure the nuclear arsenal costing around $600 million. Named after the iconic Yosemite rock formation, El Capitan not only fortifies national defense but also enhances AI tasks and materials science research.