Oak Ridge National Lab Welcoming High-Performance Computer
"There were a lot considerations to be had when designing the facilities for Summit," said George Wellborn, Heery's project architect. "We are essentially harnessing a small city's worth of power into one room. We had to ensure the confined space was adaptable for the power and cooling that is needed to run this next-generation supercomputer."
DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is moving equipment into a new high-performance computing center this month, and the center is expected to become one of the world's leading resources for open science computing. The IBM sourced computer and file storage system named Summit is expected to deliver up to 200 petaflops (quadrillion calculations per second), about twice as powerful as the current world leader in computer performance, according to ORNL, which reported Heery International designed a facility to accommodate Summit's power, cooling, and security needs.
Heery International provided full architectural and engineering design services for the reconfigured, 10,000-square-foot facility, which includes a new 20-megawatt power and cooling plant and an expanded central energy plant. "There were a lot considerations to be had when designing the facilities for Summit," said George Wellborn, Heery's project architect. "We are essentially harnessing a small city's worth of power into one room. We had to ensure the confined space was adaptable for the power and cooling that is needed to run this next-generation supercomputer."
Summit will be used to work on national challenges such as energy solutions, safe nuclear energy systems, advanced materials, and sustainable transportation.