New supercomputers for Oak Ridge National Lab

Two in the new Lux AI Cluster. Another named Discovery to replace existing Frontier computer.

The Department of Energy has announced contracts for new supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This national laboratory has long been the site of powerful computers and programs of software development.

This announcement is about infrastructure for research, an important tool for improvements in our lives but not a headline-grabber with a photogenic piece of high-tech equipment. The new computers will come on line between 2026 and 2028.

When in 1987 I wrote a computer simulation of a residential-sized heat pump driven by an internal combustion engine, I wrote the engine model and matched it to the then-current ORNL Heat Pump Design Model. The staff sent me a copy of the program on a reel of tape. One of the first issues was that my university’s computation center could not read it. Just at the time my university contact figured out it was in EBCDIC format instead of ASCII as the accompanying letter said, we got a call from our ORNL contact telling us about the ASCII/EBCDIC mixup. The language was Fortran.

When I discovered a source where I could buy a used CRT terminal and 300-baud modem I did so and put it in my student apartment. I could start the next test run from home at bedtime and have the results in the morning. What a convenience!

I have copied the DOE press release below, with its URL.

I also found an article which is written in a way that makes the distinction between Lux, Discovery, and Frontier more clear.

My source is The Register, which describes itself as “a leading and trusted global online enterprise technology news publication, reaching roughly 40 million readers worldwide.”

My third offering is a five-minute video from ORNL itself describing the long-standing computer-based research work done there.

Article in The Register

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/27/hpe_discovery_frontier_successor/

DOE Press Release

https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-new-public-private-partnership-model-two-supercomputers

Five-minute Video from ORNL

https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-amd-and-hpe-deliver-does-newest-ai-supercomputers-discovery-and-lux

An official website of the United States government

Energy Department Announces New Public-Private Partnership Model, Two Supercomputers, to Accelerate American Dominance in Science and Technology

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced two new AMD-accelerated artificial intelligence supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of which will be built at record speeds thanks to a new public-private partnership model.

Energy.gov

October 27, 2025

4 min minute read time

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced two new AMD-accelerated artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), one of which will be built at record speeds thanks to a new public-private partnership model. The supercomputers will help expand America’s leadership in scientific computing, strengthen national security, and drive the next generation of Gold Standard Science and innovation.

With the new public-private partnership model, the Lux AI cluster, powered by AMD Instinct™ MI355X GPUs, AMD EPYC™ CPUs, and AMD Pensando™ advanced networking, will be deployed in early 2026 to expand DOE’s near-term AI capacity and accelerate work on critical national priorities, including fusion, fission, materials discovery, quantum, advanced manufacturing, and grid modernization.

Lux will provide a secure, open, and efficient AI software stack to strengthen America’s innovation base and enhance U.S. competitiveness.

“Winning the AI race requires new and creative partnerships that will bring together the brightest minds and industries American technology and science has to offer,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “That’s why the Trump administration is announcing the first example of a new commonsense approach to computing partnerships with Lux. We are also announcing, as part of a competitive procurement process, Discovery. Working with AMD and HPE, we’re bringing new capacity online faster than ever before, turning shared innovation into national strength, and proving that America leads when private-public partners build together.”

“We are proud and honored to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy and Secretary Wright to accelerate America’s AI compute infrastructure,” said AMD chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “This partnership exemplifies public-private collaboration at its best. With Discovery and Lux, we are delivering leadership compute systems that combine performance and energy efficiency to advance America’s research priorities and strengthen U.S. leadership in AI, energy, and national security.”

DOE has a long history of public-private partnerships that have provided American leadership in supercomputing for decades. The new public-private partnership model will help accelerate the timeframe it takes to stand up new supercomputers from years to months by allowing for co-investments from both the DOE and private partners. The model also allows for shared computing power and infrastructure for mutual benefit, advancing the technologies that power American science, energy, and industry. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, DOE is advancing a bold new era of American scientific capability, built on speed, scale, and impact.

As part of the traditional procurement model, Discovery, an HPE system powered by AMD processors and accelerators, will arrive in 2028 with performance far exceeding Frontier, the world’s second largest supercomputer which is also located at ORNL. Discovery will pioneer the convergence of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum systems. Discovery will be based on the new HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000, which is powered by a combination of upcoming next generation AMD EPYC “Venice” processors and AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs.

Discovery’s enhanced performance will enable scientists to generate, process, and analyze data at record speeds, shrinking discovery cycles from years to weeks and training AI models built for the toughest scientific problems. These capabilities will power new advances in medicine, energy, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing, driving American prosperity through innovation.

“We are proud to build on our strong U.S. public-private partnership with the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD that first began when we debuted the Frontier exascale supercomputer and broke a significant computing speed barrier,” said HPE president and CEO Antonio Neri. “Together, we will continue to strengthen U.S. national leadership in the era of AI and accelerate scientific breakthroughs and innovation with Discovery and Lux.”

“The Discovery system will drive scientific innovation faster and farther than ever before,” said ORNL Laboratory Director Stephen Streiffer. “Oak Ridge’s leadership in supercomputing has transformed how researchers solve problems. With Discovery and Lux, we’re accelerating the pace of Gold Standard Science at a scale that secures America’s leadership in an increasingly competitive world.”

Lux and Discovery will strengthen the Department’s ability to move data securely across sites, integrate modeling and experimentation, and deliver rapid solutions for national priorities. With more than $1 billion in public-private investment, DOE, together with AMD and HPE, is delivering new AI capacity in record time.

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