DOE Labs Take Pride in Award-Winning IBM Blue Ge...( Argonne Lawr...)

Argonne, Lawrence Livermore helped design supercomputer honored by President Obama

Argonne, Ill. (Vocus) October 7, 2009 -- The IBM Blue Gene series of energy-efficient supercomputers, central to breakthrough scientific research around the world, will be singled out by President Barack Obama as a Medal of Technology and Innovation award-winner on October 7 in Washington, D.C.

When IBM accepts this well-deserved honor, computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories can take pride in their role in making these computers a reality. Both sites contributed critical input and software components through a DOE research and development partnership with IBM that strongly impacted Blue Gene's extreme-scale design.

"The success of this partnership is an excellent example of how national laboratories can help fuel industry and drive innovation," said William Brinkman, Director of DOE's Office of Science.

"The Blue Gene supercomputers are an outstanding example of our investment in nuclear security providing the tools to tackle broader national challenges," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino. "This machine, which was originally developed to ensure the safety and reliability of our nuclear stockpile without testing, has led to amazing advances in science and discovery. I congratulate IBM, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory for a job well done."

DOE, which leads the world in providing supercomputers for scientific research, began an R&D partnership with IBM in 2001 to develop the Blue Gene platform. Argonne, together with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), worked on key aspects of the design and provided critical software components to ensure it was well suited to solve challenges in energy, the environment and
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