National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): Advancing the frontiers of computational science and technology

Abstract

National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) provides researchers with high-performance computing tools to tackle science`s biggest and most challenging problems. Founded in 1974 by DOE/ER, the Controlled Thermonuclear Research Computer Center was the first unclassified supercomputer center and was the model for those that followed. Over the years the center`s name was changed to the National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center and then to NERSC; it was relocated to LBNL. NERSC, one of the largest unclassified scientific computing resources in the world, is the principal provider of general-purpose computing services to DOE/ER programs: Magnetic Fusion Energy, High Energy and Nuclear Physics, Basic Energy Sciences, Health and Environmental Research, and the Office of Computational and Technology Research. NERSC users are a diverse community located throughout US and in several foreign countries. This brochure describes: the NERSC advantage, its computational resources and services, future technologies, scientific resources, and computational science of scale (interdisciplinary research over a decade or longer; examples: combustion in engines, waste management chemistry, global climate change modeling).