Cybersecurity

HPE, AMD win deal for U.S. supercomputer to model nuclear weapons

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and Advanced Micro Devices Inc on Wednesday said they had won a $600 million deal to deliver a supercomputer that will be used by the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear security arm to support the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The computer, dubbed El Capitan after the famous rock face in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, will be housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It will also be used by two other national nuclear labs, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The awarding of the chip contract to AMD is a big win for the company, which now has deals for two of the three most powerful computers under development by the U.S. government.

All but one of the world’s current top 10 fastest supercomputers use central processor chips from either Intel Corp or International Business Machines Inc, according to supercomputing research group TOP500. The exception is the third-fastest, which is located in China and uses a domestically developed chip.