PNNL

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program has renewed its funding for the Center for Advanced Technology Evaluation (CENATE) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). CENATE substantiates the capabilities of advanced technologies and concepts in advancing scientific computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity through rigorous assessment and evaluation.

Since its inception in October 2015, CENATE has cultivated strategic partnerships with innovative companies, such as Nvidia, Xilinx, SambaNova, Micron Technology, ARM Ltd., and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., to explore the potential impacts of novel computing technologies. These partnerships have proven successful: in 2016, CENATE won the HPCwire Editor’s Choice Award for “Best Collaboration Between Government & Industry.” The center also partners with computational scientists, computer scientists, and architecture technology developers to shape the future of scientific computing.

CENATE informs DOE’s computing landscape by assessing the potential of novel and disruptive technologies. “Through small-scale testbed deployments, we bring new technologies to computational scientists who are developing the next generation of scientific applications, and to computer scientists who are building tools and system software to create an evaluation ecosystem that spans the entire hardware and software stack,” said Kevin Barker, Project Manager of CENATE. This allows researchers to both quantitatively assess the performance potential of these technologies as well as gain an understanding of emerging security and data privacy concerns that may arise as new computing system designs take shape.

Thus far CENATE’s research has helped thwart cybersecurity threats, accelerated neural networks, and improved virtual reality systems, among other things. The DOE’s continued support will allow CENATE researchers to keep improving novel computing technologies and ultimately make the future of computing faster, better, and more secure.