Newswise — The new Princeton University supercomputer, Traverse, enhances research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics (PPPL) to develop the science to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth. Princeton officially launched the supercomputer Sept. 30 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the High-Performance Computing Research Center on the Forrestal campus. Participants included David McComas, Princeton University’s vice president for PPPL; Chelle Reno, Princeton University’s assistant vice president for operations for PPPL; Steve Cowley, director of PPPL; Craig Ferguson, deputy director for operations and chief operating officer at PPPL; and Jay Dominick, Princeton University’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer. 

Traverse houses the same processing architecture as the leadership class supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The powerful supercomputer will enable PPPL scientists to adapt their codes to the leadership class computing cluster and prepare for exascale machines that will process a billion billion (1018) calculations per second. “At that scale we will be able to simulate and optimize fusion reactors, speeding the deployment of fusion energy in the global battle against climate change,” Cowley said at the ceremony. “We are very grateful to the University for this marvelous facility.” Click here to read the full release on the University website.