Red Hat, Inc. announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the operating system platform for El Capitan, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) first exascale supercomputer. Projected to be the most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan is located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). As the analyst for El Capitan's software stack, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a crucial linkage in preparing for cloud-enabled supercomputers with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) components.

At the same time, the platform easily integrates with LLNL's existing technology environment, providing a simplified administration and user experience that spans from traditional systems to El Capitan's next-generation infrastructure. When fully deployed in mid- to late 2024, El Capitan is expected to boast a processing power of over two (double precision) exaflops per second and will be used by all three NNSA Tri-Labs (LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory) to help address the safety, security and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile. The supercomputer and its unclassified companion system, Tuolumne, will also support research in areas that include climate science, computational biology, material discovery, high energy-density physics, material modeling and more.

LLNL has a long-standing history with Red Hat, having used Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the backbone of many of its systems, 11 of which rank on the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. LLNL also employs Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the default operating system for several smaller supercomputers within its restricted and collaboration networks, like Tuolumne and RZAdams, to help establish a standard operating environment across the bulk of the lab's systems. Harmony between RHEL and LLNL is mission-critical, as high-performance computing (HPC) strategies must be aligned with the overwhelming prevalence of cloud-based systems.