The Cray XT Jaguar supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) completed a rigorous acceptance test nine months ahead of schedule. The acceptance test of the performance, functionality and stability of the machine demonstrated that it is ready to deliver the science results needed to address some of the nation’s most challenging problems, such as climate change and energy assurance. The Jaguar, housed at the Oak Ridge National Leadership Computing Facility, is the world’s fastest system available to open, unclassified research and will enable more scientific results on an earlier schedule than originally planned.

“The level of science that this computer will deliver could have profound long-term benefits for American competitiveness,” Congressman Zach Wamp said. “With the Jaguar upgrades, Tennessee is now the center for world computing.”

Among the most powerful open, scientific computing systems in the world, Jaguar is already in high demand by scientists wishing to take advantage of the machine’s blistering speed, as it is capable of reaching a peak 1.64 “petaflops” (one thousand trillion mathematical calculations per second).The Jaguar petaflops system is unique in the balance it represents among speed, power and other elements essential to scientific discovery. Jaguar will enable companies to reduce development costs and shorten the time required to market new technologies. It is the result of a partnership among DOE, ORNL and Cray, Inc. that has pushed computing capa¬bility at a rapid pace.