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Lucky Tokens
NERSC’s Hopper supercomputer contained 153,216 compute cores, 217 terabytes of memory, 2 petabytes of disk storage—and a cat figurine for luck!
Hopper, named in honor of computer scientist Grace Murray Hopper, had a Japanese "lucky cat" figurine stashed in one cabinet. In April 2011, Yukiko Sekine (NERSC's former Energy Department program manager) presented the cat to Jonathan Carter (currently associate lab director for the Computing Sciences Area).
It’s not the first lucky token to stand guard over NERSC’s large, complex, and well-used scientific supercomputers. Other systems – for reasons known only to NERSC staff – have been protected from ill fate by rubber chickens. (»Visit our interactive timeline to learn more about NERSC history.)
NERSC@50
Bailey to Explore DESI Collab for NERSC@50 September 25, 2024
Bell Gets in the Flow for NERSC@50 September 10, 2024
Voting Now Open in NERSC Science as Art Competition September 9, 2024
Nugent to Illuminate Astrophysics at NERSC in Upcoming Seminar August 21, 2024
NERSC Science as Art Contest Deadline Extended July 31, 2024
Science News
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