National Science Foundation Awards $60 Million to Fund the Most Powerful Supercomputer the Agency has Seen Yet

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced that it has awarded $60 million to fund the largest, most powerful supercomputer ever supported by the agency. This new system has a capacity five times greater than the previous computing systems funded by NSF. In a recent press release the agency announced that the high performance-computer (HPC – called Frontera – will be located at the University of Texas at Austin’s (UT Austin) Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

Faculty at UT Austin will work with partners from a variety of other institutions, including California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Utah, University of California, Davis, Ohio State University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University, to lead science applications on the new HPC.

“For over three decades, NSF has been a leader in providing the computing resources our nation’s researchers need to accelerate innovation,” said NSF Director France Córdova. “Keeping the U.S. at the forefront of advanced computing capabilities and providing researchers across the country access to those resources are key elements in maintaining our status as a global leader in research and education. This award is an investment in the entire U.S. research ecosystem that will enable leap-ahead discoveries.”