The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has marked a significant milestone as construction begins on the Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF), an advanced groundbreaking facility led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin. This facility is poised to revolutionize computational research and development, offering unparalleled opportunities in computer simulation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics in transformational science and engineering research.
The LCCF will be a marvel in the National Science Foundation’s ecosystem, representing a colossal supercomputing system that is set to lead the way in the domain. Anchored by the new Horizon computer at TACC, it is expected to be the largest facility in the NSF’s ecosystem, supported by a whopping $5 million in funding. This development has also paved the way for the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to play a pivotal role as one of the four Distributed Science Centers, being entrusted with the critical task of leveraging expertise across the broader cyberinfrastructure ecosystem, and providing essential edge computing services to the LCCF user community.
The involvement of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint center of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, signifies a new era in distributed computing. Their contribution is designed to enhance the LCCF by providing data-intensive computing and data mirrors for published archives. The method of having a backup copy in real time will serve as an added layer of security and disaster-recovery measures.
The construction of the LCCF marks a monumental leap in advancing computational research and development. The fusion of resources and expertise from the NSF, TACC, and partner institutions is set to reshape the landscape of scientific research and engineering, opening new frontiers in computer simulation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. With the promise of transformational science and engineering research, the LCCF is poised to become a beacon of innovation and progress in the realm of supercomputing.
