Contact: Don Johnston
Phone: (925) 423-4902
E-mail: johnston19@llnl.gov

THOMAS STERLING OF CALTECH TO DISCUSS NEXT GENERATION SUPERCOMPUTING SYSTEMS

What:
"Trans-petaflop Computing in the 21st Century": An overview of innovative technologies and approaches that are paving the way for a new generation of "petaflop" supercomputer systems, thousands of times faster than ASCI White's 12 trillion floating operations per second (teraflops) and Japan's Earth Simulator. A petaflop equals 1,000 teraflops.

Who:
Thomas Sterling, California Institute of Technology. Sterling's name is synonymous with petaflops computing. Sterling invented the term "Beowulf" to describe commodity clusters and is the lead author of the MIT Press book "How to Build a Beowulf." Since 1996, Sterling has been a senior staff scientist in the High Performance Computing Systems Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); and a faculty associate, Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR), California Institute of Technology.

When:
1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20, 2002

Where:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Background:
Ever since its founding 50 years ago, the Laboratory has pioneered computation as a tool for the scientific discovery and technological innovation vital to fulfilling its national security missions. Sterling leads an interagency petaflops initiative, including Lab scientists, building the foundation for the supercomputers of the future.

NOTE:
Badging required. Press members interested in attending need to contact the LLNL Public Affairs Office at (925) 424-4822 to make arrangements.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by the University of California.