Computing Milestones at NERSC

As the first unclassified supercomputer center and the model for those that followed, NERSC has played a key role in the history of scientific computing. The idea that interactive scientific computing could be provided to a national community from a central facility was revolutionary in 1974. NERSC and ESnet pioneered many of the computing and networking practices taken for granted today, including remote access by thousands of users, high-performance data storage and retrieval, and providing on-line documentation and around-the-clock support for the user community. Some of the milestones in NERSC's history are listed below.

2007

NERSC Announces Acceptance of One of the World's Largest Supercomputers

The Next Step in Powering Computers (KGO-TV news story with video)

2006

New IBM Cluster Enters Production

Cray Wins $52 Million Supercomputer Contract with NERSC

2005

Science-Driven Computing: NERSC's Plan for 2006-2010

NERSC Global Filesystem Provides Access to Heterogeneous Systems

NERSC Launches Linux Networx Supercomputer into Production

2004

National Facility for Advanced Computational Science: A Sustainable Path to Scientific Discovery (proposal)

2003

Science-of-Scale Applications Achieve Significant Results and up to 68% of Peak Performance on NERSC's 10 Tflop/s IBM SP.

NERSC Center Deploys 10 Teraflop/s IBM Supercomputer.

Improved Algorithms Shift Plasma Simulations into High Gear.

2002

Creating Science-Driven Computer Architecture: The "Blue Planet" Proposal.

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Leads International Team to Win High-Performance Computing Bandwidth Challenge.

2001

World's Largest Unclassified Supercomputer Goes Online, Scientists Already Reporting Significant Results.

NERSC Strategic Proposal 2002-2006: Overview  |  Document (PDF)

2000

IBM SP Launched Ahead of Schedule with Million-Hour Bonus for Users.

Move to Oakland Goes Like Clockwork.

ESP: A System Utilization Benchmark.

1999

NERSC Celebrates 25 Years of Computing.

NERSC Achieves Breakthrough 93% Utilization on Cray T3E.

1998

NERSC Is Partner in Winning Supercomputing's Top Prize.

1997

NERSC First to Reach Decade-Long Goal of Seamless Shutdown, Restart on Massively Parallel Processing System.

International Survey Ranks Berkeley Lab as Top Unclassified Computing Center in United States.

NERSC Delivers One Million T3E CPU-Hours to Scientific Users.

Intel, Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley to Create Off-The-Shelf Parallel Supercomputing Network.

1996

NERSC relocates to Berkeley Lab (without interrupting service) and reinvents the supercomputing center as an organization dedicated to making scientific computing more productive.

Cray T3E, J90s, and HPSS installed.

1994

(For more information on NERSC's early years, see NERSC and ESnet: 25 Years of Leadership)

First massively parallel system installed at NERSC is Cray T3D.

1993

NERSC joins five other labs and IBM to develop the High Performance Storage System (HPSS).

1992

Sixteen-processor Cray C-90 installed at NERSC — peak speed: 16 Gflop/s.

1990

Eight-processor Cray-2 installed.

NMFECC is renamed NERSC.

1988

ESnet begins providing networking services to NMFECC users.

1985

Four-processor Cray-2 installed.

1984

Cray X-MP installed.

1983

NMFECC begins supporting research in other scientific fields besides fusion energy.

1981

New satellite links provide seamless connections to NMFECC.

Second Cray-1 installed.

1979

Number of NMFECC users reaches 1,000.

Automated Tape Library system is installed.

1978

Cray-1 installed.

NMFECC develops the Cray Time Sharing System (CTSS), a package of operating system, utilities, and libraries that allows interactive use of the Cray-1. CTSS is eventually adopted by six other computer centers.

1976

CTR Computer Center is renamed the National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center (NMFECC).

Remote access terminals added at UC Berkeley, UCLA, SAIC.

1975

CDC 7600 computer installed.

Remote terminals at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory allow direct connection to computer.

Dial-up modems replaced with self-answering modems.

1974

Local researchers begin running jobs on a borrowed CDC 6600 computer.

1973

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory wins competition to host the new Controlled Thermonuclear Research Computer Center in support of the national fusion energy research program. This is the first national unclassified supercomputing center and the model for those that will follow.