NASA has just finished unveiling their latest supercomputer Aitken. Aitken will provide increased accuracy for simulations and calculations for Artemis. What is Artemis? Artemis is our next moonshot aimed at getting people back to the moon in 2024. Barely five years to go!
Using a power efficient modular design Aitken was created in collaboration with HPE as part of a four year partnership with NASA. Based on the HPE SGI 8600, this cluster is capable of up to 3.69 petaflops and using over 200 TB for storage. With this design Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans to be able to scale from this up to 16 modules.
Increasing compute power and decreasing the environmental footprint were two big goals here. They managed to save 2 million kilowatts-hours using this approach. Not too shabby as that ought to keep a few extra lights on in the neighborhood. Water consumption was reduced by over 3 million gallons as well.
Thanks to Engadget for reporting on this and congratulations to both HPE and NASA for achieving such momentous goals.