Research lab to receive new supercomputer Published Jan. 21, 2015 WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The Air Force Research Laboratory's Department of Defense Supercomputer Resource Center (DSRC) here will receive a new supercomputer as a result of a $30 million award to Silicon Graphics International (SGI). The award, announced in December 2014, is part of the DOD High Performance Computing Moderni-zation Program Technology Insertion 2015 program. The system will be named "Thunder" in honor of the Air Force's P-47 and A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft. According to an SGI press release, the systems are expected to be operational this summer. "Thunder's capability is amazing, and reaffirms our commitment to providing our customers with world-class computational tools" said Jeff Graham, AFRL DSRC director. "The power of Thunder will drive solutions to the most challenging problems facing our nation in today's volatile global environ-ment." The newest supercomputer will consist of: > 125,888 compute cores > 443 terabytes of memory > 12.4 petabytes of storage Thunder will computer at nearly 5.66 petaFLOPS (floating point operations per second). Thunder will join its sister supercomputers, Spirit and Lightning, at the AFRL DSRC. The AFRL DSRC is one of five DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Program supercomputer centers that give DOD scientists and engineers the computing power and other resources they need to solve the military's most demanding problems. Each center has a collection of high performance computers, high-speed networking, multi-petabyte archival mass storage, and customer support. Supercomputers help solve problems for the DOD in fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, materials design, weapon systems design, operational effectiveness analysis, developmental testing, and climate and ocean modeling. About the High Performance Computing Modernization Program This program periodically renews the DOD's supercomputers and its high speed networks with the goal to keep the DOD at the leading edge of technology. The High Performance Computing Moderni-zation Program also provides expertise in software development and system design, thus creating a complete advanced computing environment for DOD scientists and engineers. This partnership puts advanced technology in the hands of U.S. fighting forces more quickly, less expensively, and with a greater degree of success. The High Performance Computing Modernization Program is managed on behalf of DOD by the Army Engineer Research and Development Center. For more information, go online to: www.afrl.hpc.mil.