US announces new supercomputer powered by Dell and Nvidia

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has announced a new contract with Dell Technologies to develop NERSC-10, the next flagship supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a US Department of Energy (DOE) user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). 

The new system, due in 2026, will be named after Jennifer Doudna, the Berkeley Lab-based biochemist who was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry in recognition of her work on the gene-editing technology CRISPR, the DOE said in a media release.

The new supercomputer, a Dell Technologies system powered by Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform, will be engineered to support large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) workloads like those in molecular dynamics, high-energy physics, and AI training and inference — and provide a robust environment for the workflows that make cutting-edge science possible, according to the media release. 

“The Doudna system represents DOE’s commitment to advancing American leadership in science, AI, and high-performance computing,” said US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “It will be a powerhouse for rapid innovation that will transform our efforts to develop abundant, affordable energy supplies and advance breakthroughs in quantum computing. AI is the Manhattan Project of our time, and Doudna will help ensure America’s scientists have the tools they need to win the global race for AI dominance.”

“At Dell Technologies, we are empowering researchers worldwide by seamlessly integrating simulation, data, and AI to address the world’s most complex challenges,” said Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Technologies. “Our collaboration with the Department of Energy on Doudna underscores a shared vision to redefine the limits of high-performance computing and drive innovation that accelerates human progress.”

“Doudna is a time machine for science — compressing years of discovery into days,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Built together with DOE and powered by Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform, it will let scientists delve deeper and think bigger to seek the fundamental truths of the universe.”

The new supercomputer will be powered by Dell Integrated Rack Scalable Systems and PowerEdge servers with Nvidia accelerators for AI-optimized and compute-optimized workloads, a high-speed Nvidia Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking platform, and a heterogeneous workflow environment that can be reconfigured to support complex workflows, according to an online post by Berkeley Lab.

“The Doudna supercomputer is designed to accelerate a broad set of scientific workflows. We are collaborating with Nvidia and Dell to prepare our 11,000 users to effectively use this system’s exciting new workflow capabilities,” said NERSC Director Sudip Dosanjh. “Doudna will be connected to DOE experimental and observational facilities through the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), allowing scientists to stream data seamlessly into the system from all parts of the country and to analyze it in near-real time.”