The U.S. Department of Energy has announced plans to build what it said would be the world’s most powerful computer as part of a $600 million contract with Seattle-based manufacturer Cray Inc.
Frontier will be constructed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and is scheduled to be completed by 2021. Once finished, the department said that the computer would help accelerate innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence, energy assurance and national security. Incorporating new technology from Cray and processors from American firm AMD, Frontier will provide advanced AI capabilities—such as deep-learning and machine learning—integrated with high-performance data analytics, scientific modeling and simulation, which could be applied to everything from manufacturing to healthcare.
ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a statement:"ORNL’s vision is to sustain the nation's pre-eminence in science and technology by developing and deploying leadership computing for research and innovation at an unprecedented scale. Frontier follows the well-established computing path charted by ORNL and its partners that will provide the research community with an exascale system ready for science on day one.