DESI Shares Largest 3D Map of the Universe Yet

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument releases data on 18.7 million galaxies, quasars, and stars — the largest dataset of its kind ever shared. » Read More

More Efficient Fusion

So-called “slow waves” waste energy in fusion reactions. Recent simulations successfully tested a new method to stop their formation. » Read More

NERSC Launches IBM Quantum Innovation Center

NERSC users can now apply to access quantum computing resources through a partnership with IBM. » Read More

AI Shows Promise for Mapping Disease Progression

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Quantum Computing Partnership Extended

After a successful first year punctuated by strong scientific results, NERSC’s partnership with QuEra Computing has been extended. » Read More

National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

NERSC is the mission scientific computing facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences.

Computing at NERSC

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Now Computing

Some of the science now being computed at NERSC

Numbers not changing? Check the center status page for information.

Project	System	Nodes
Center for Computational Study of Excited-State Phenomena in Energy Materials (C2SEPEM) Basic Energy Sciences PI: Jack Deslippe, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	perlmutter	256
Relativistic quantum dynamics in the non-equilibrium regime Basic Energy Sciences PI: Albert De Prince, Florida State University	perlmutter	256
Lattice QCD search for physics beyond the standard model High Energy Physics PI: Rajan Gupta, Los Alamos National Laboratory	perlmutter	128
Turbulent Transport and Multiscale Gyrokinetic Simulation Fusion Energy Sciences PI: Weixing Wang, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)	perlmutter	64
Structure refinement of Spike-protein of SARS-COV-2 Advanced Scientific Computing Research PI: Wai-Yim Ching, University of Missouri - Kansas City	perlmutter	64
Detector Simulation of the ATLAS Detector on NERSC HPCs High Energy Physics PI: Paolo Calafiura, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	perlmutter	50

Did You Know?

Lucky Tokens

Man and woman show lucky cat figurine while standing in front of open computer system cabinet.

Yukiko Sekine, Jonathan Carter, and the Hopper system's “lucky cat,” in 2011. (Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab)

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.)