---
title: "LANL donation adds to UNM supercomputing power"
description: "A new computing system donated to The University of New Mexico Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) puts the “super” in supercomputing."
type: News
tags:
  - News
date: "2017"
generated:
  by: "process:scripts/port_legacy_pages.py"
  at: "2026-09-10T00:00:00Z"
sources:
  - id: carc-web
    resource: "https://carc.unm.edu/news--events/News/lanl-carc-machine.html"
    title: "LANL donation adds to UNM supercomputing power (carc.unm.edu)"
    author: "team:unm-carc"
---

# LANL donation adds to UNM supercomputing power

<p class="carc-byline">2017</p>

A new computing system donated to The University of New Mexico Center for
Advanced Research Computing (CARC) by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
puts the “super” in supercomputing.

The new system is nine times more powerful than the combined computing power
of the four machines it is replacing, said CARC interim director Patrick
Bridges.

The machine was acquired from LANL through the National Science
Foundation-sponsored PR0bE project, which is run by the New Mexico Consortium.
The NMC, comprising UNM, New Mexico State, and New Mexico Tech universities,
engages universities and industry in scientific research in the nation's
interest and to increase the role of LANL in science, education, and economic
development.

The new system includes:

* Over 500 nodes, each featuring two quad-core 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon 5550 CPUs
  and 24 GB of memory
* Over 4,000 cores and 12 terabytes of RAM
* 45-50 trillion floating-point operations per second (45-50 teraflops)

Additional memory, storage, and specialized compute facilities to augment this
system are also being planned.

“This is roughly 20 percent more powerful than any other remaining system at
UNM,” Bridges said. “Not only will the new machine be easier to administer and
maintain, but also easier for students, faculty, and staff to use. The machine
will provide cutting-edge computation for users and will be the fastest of all
the machines.”

Andree Jacobson, chief information officer of the NMC, says that he is pleased
that donation will benefit educational efforts.

“Through a very successful collaboration between the National Science
Foundation, New Mexico Consortium, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory
called PRObE, we’ve been able to repurpose this retired machine to
significantly improve the research computing environment in New Mexico,” he
said. “It is truly wonderful to see old computers get a new life, and also an
outstanding opportunity to assist the New Mexico universities.”

To make space for the new machine, the Metropolis, Pequeña, and Ulam systems
at UNM will be phased out over the next couple of months. As they are taken
offline, the new machine will be installed and brought online. Users of
existing systems and their research will be transitioned to the new machine as
part of this process.

**Media contact**

Kim Delker

UNM School of Engineering

505.277.5859

[ksdelker@unm.edu](mailto:ksdelker@unm.edu)