Aurora is coming. Step one: Theta

After much anticipation, the Department of Energy recently announced that industry partners Intel and Cray would be delivering Argonne’s next supercomputer, Aurora. The new system will be a first-of-its-kind product from the market-leading chipmaker and the renowned computer manufacturer, and is expected to be at least 18 times more powerful than the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s current system, Mira.

Mira has lots of science to accomplish between now and the time Aurora arrives on the scene in 2018, but the planning phase officially kicked off this week with a call for proposals for Aurora’s pre-production system, Theta.

The Early Science program for Theta is accepting proposals through May 22. Selected projects will get early access to the machine and support from ALCF staff and postdocs. Look for Aurora’s Early Science Program call for proposals next spring.