Joule 3.0

NETL is home to Joule – among the world’s fastest high-performance computers – and advanced visualization centers that serve the organization’s research and development needs. The third generation of Joule supercomputer underwent a $21.66 million refresh in June 2024, resulting in a nearly a 40% increase in computing capacity. As of November 2024, Joule 3.0 is ranked 24th among DOE National Laboratory supercomputers, 65th in the United States, and 215th globally on the TOP500 list, as well as 101st worldwide on the HPCG ranking. The TOP500 ranking, based on the High-Performance LINPACK (HPL) benchmark, measures raw computational performance and peak processing speed. In contrast, the High-Performance Conjugate Gradient (HPCG) benchmark focuses on real-world application performance by assessing memory bandwidth, communication efficiency, and latency, providing a more practical evaluation of the system’s effectiveness in solving complex problems.