During California's shelter-in-place order, NERSC continues normal operations with online support and remote training. » Learn More

Stars Align for Scientists Modeling Supernovae

For more than 60 years, physicists have been studying the question of how supernova explosions occur. Thanks to the increasing power of supercomputing resources such as those at NERSC, they’re moving ever closer to an answer. » Read More

Measurements of Pulsar Accelerations Reveal Milky Way’s Dark Side

Researchers using NERSC supercomputers have obtained the first direct measurement of the average stellar acceleration taking place within our home galaxy, the Milky Way. » Read More

NERSC Supports COVID-19 Pandemic Response

NERSC is providing up to 2.5 million supercomputing hours and dedicated staff liaisons to support of 20 projects aimed at combating COVID-19. » Read More

Spectacular ultraviolet flash may finally explain how white dwarfs explode

For just the second time ever, astrophysicists have spotted a spectacular flash of ultraviolet light in a supernova, an extremely rare event following a white dwarf explosion. Using NERSC supercomputers, Berkeley Lab's Abigail Polin may have an explanation for what caused this explosion. » Read More

3D Simulations Reveal Physics of Superluminous Supernovae

For the first time ever, an international team of astrophysicists simulated the 3D physics of superluminous supernovae—which are about a hundred times more luminous than typical supernovae—with NERSC supercomputers. » Read More

National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

Computing at NERSC

OURSYSTEMS DOCUMENTATIONFOR USERS CENTERSTATUS APPLY TOUSE NERSC

NERSC Support for COVID-19 Research

NERSC is participating in the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. This unique private-public effort brings together federal government, industry, and academic leaders to volunteer free compute time and resources on their world-class machines. NERSC has initially set aside up to 1.25 million node hours on its Cori supercomputer in support of this effort. In addition, NERSC's HPC experts are available to assist research teams. Scientists are invited to submit COVID-19 related research proposals, from which an expert panel of top scientists and computing researchers will select projects based on public health benefits, with an emphasis on rapid results.

Learn more about projects using NERSC that are involved in COVID-19 related research.

Now Computing

Project	Machine	Nodes
Lattice QCD search for physics beyond the standard model PI: Rajan Gupta, Los Alamos Lab	Cori KNL	1,936
Lattice QCD search for physics beyond the standard model PI: Rajan Gupta, Los Alamos Lab	Cori KNL	1,152
Lattice QCD search for physics beyond the standard model PI: Rajan Gupta, Los Alamos Lab	Cori KNL	1,152
Lattice QCD Monte Carlo Calculation of Hadronic Structure and Spectroscopy PI: Keh-Fei Liu, U. Kentucky	Cori KNL	1,152
Continuing studies of plasma based accelerators PI: Frank Tsung, UCLA	Cori KNL	512

'Bubbles' the Cray-2

NERSC's Cray2 nicknamed 'Bubbles'

In 1985, NERSC was the first to install the Cray-2, then the fastest computer in the world. Today, just about any mobile phone has more processing power. The Cray-2 was nicknamed "Bubbles" for its unique liquid cooling system.