Hewlett Packard Enterprise Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are set to make history by delivering the world’s largest supercomputer, designed to protect the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

Dubbed “El Capitan,” the supercomputer is being designed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Cray, which HPE acquired for $1.3 billion in May. The companies announced the plans today with partner Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Cray is synonymous with supercomputers, ever since founder Seymour Cray designed the Univac 1103, credited as one of the first-ever supercomputers. Cray went on to become a world leader in supercomputer design.

El Capitan is claimed to be the world’s fastest exascale supercomputer, delivering 10 times faster processing than any of its predecessors. Remarkably, the supercomputer is claimed to be able to deliver greater performance than the existing top 200 supercomputers combined.

The supercomputer is expected to come online in 2023. Under the hood, El Capitan will use next-generation AMD Radeon Instinct graphics processing unit chips, which are said to be based on a new compute-optimized architecture for workloads such as high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. The supercomputer will also use Epyc central processing units from AMD and the third-generation AMD Infinity Architecture for a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection between the CPUs and GPUs.

“This unprecedented computing capability, powered by advanced CPU and GPU technology from AMD, will sustain America’s position on the global stage in high-performance computing and provide an observable example of the commitment of the country to maintaining an unparalleled nuclear deterrent,” Lawrence Livermore National Lab Director Bill Goldstein said in a statement. “Today’s news provides a prime example of how government and industry can work together for the benefit of the entire nation.”

To say that El Capitan is groundbreaking is an understatement. While not technically in a new Cold War, the U.S. and China have been in what has been called a tech war going back more than a decade. Of the current top four supercomputers in the world, two are in the U.S. and two are in China, but when that’s extended out to the top 500, China is ahead, even if the U.S. has a performance advantage.

The news comes after Honeywell International Inc. announced that it was building what it claims is the world’s most powerful quantum computer. The Honeywell computer, built in conjunction with International Business Machines Corp., is claimed to use ytterbium atoms for the qubits, which are suspended in an internally fabricated ion trap about the size of a football.

With reporting from Robert Hof

Photo: HPE