- The third most powerful supercomputer in the world has been completed and unveiled: the Sierra.

- This supercomputer, which can do 125 quadrillion calculations in a second, will be used to create simulations that can test how safe and reliable nuclear weapons in the government stockpile is.

- The Sierra is currently being used for scientific work, such as predicting the effects of cancer and mapping traumatic brain injury.


The 3rd most powerful supercomputer in the world was turned on at a classified government lab in California — Here’s what the 7,000 square foot ‘mini city’ of processing power is like up close


The third most powerful supercomputer in the world has been completed and unveiled: the Sierra.

This supercomputer, which can do 125 quadrillion calculations in a second, will be used to create simulations that can test how safe and reliable nuclear weapons in the government stockpile is.

The Sierra is currently being used for scientific work, such as predicting the effects of cancer and mapping traumatic brain injury.

Covering 7,000 square feet and with 240 computing racks and 4,320 nodes, a classified government lab holds what looks like a futuristic mini city of black boxes with flashing blue and green lights.

This buzzing machine, called the Sierra supercomputer, is the third most powerful computer in the world. It was unveiled Friday at its home, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, after four years in the making.

At its peak, Sierra can do 125 quadrillion calculations in a second. Its simulations are 100,000 times more realistic than anything a normal desktop computer can make. The only two supercomputers that are more powerful are China's Sunway Taihulight in second place and IBM's Summit in first.

"It would take 10 years to do the calculations this machine can do in one second," said Ian Buck, vice president and general manager of accelerated computing at NVIDIA.

Powering such a massive electronic brain takes about 11 to 12 megawatts of energy, roughly the equivalent of what's needed to power 12,000 homes - a relatively energy efficient level of energy consumption, according to Sierra's creators.


Right now, Sierra is partnering with medical labs to help develop cancer treatments and study traumatic brain injury before it switches to classified work.

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