Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( LLNL ) is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center ( FFRDC ) founded by the University of California in 1952.

LLNL is also one of three laboratories in the United States where classified work on the science and engineering design of nuclear weapons is undertaken.

LLNL is self-described as " a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security.

The Lab is a leader in technical innovation: since 1978, LLNL has received a total of 118 prestigious R & D 100 Awards, including five in 2007.

* The LLNL is very strong in computer science, with thrust areas in computing applications and research, integrated computing and communications systems, and cyber security.

The LLNL Director is appointed by the Board of Governors of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC ( LLNS ) and reports to the board.

The LLNL Director is supported by a senior executive team consisting of the Deputy Director, the Deputy Director for Science and Technology, Principal Associate Directors, and other senior executives who manage areas / functions directly reporting to the Laboratory Director.

The Board of Governors is the ultimate governing body of LLNS and is charged with overseeing the affairs of LLNS in its operations and management of LLNL.

While most of the work performed by LLNL is funded by the federal government, Laboratory employees are paid by LLNS which is responsible for all aspects of their employment including providing health care benefits and retirement programs.

The LLNS Executive Committee is free to appoint officers or other managers of LLNS and LLNL, and may delegate its authorities as it deems appropriate to such officers, employees, or other representatives of LLNS / LLNL.

Mercury is also the main management area for the site which includes a bar and large cafeteria, printing plant, medical center, warehousing, fleet management, liquidation and recycling center, engineering offices, dormitories and other administrative areas for both the O & M contractors, LLNL, LANL and SNL personnel.

* 1965 ( approximate )-The 12-beam " 4 pi laser " using ruby as the lasing medium is developed at LLNL includes a gas-filled target chamber of about 20 centimeters in diameter.

* 1972-The first neodymium-doped glass ( Nd: glass ) laser for ICF research, the " Long Path laser " is completed at LLNL and is capable of delivering ~ 50 joules to a fusion target.

** The two beam Argus laser is completed at LLNL and experiments involving more advanced laser-target interactions commence.

* 1977-The 20 beam Shiva laser at LLNL is completed, capable of delivering 10. 2 kilojoules of infrared energy on target.

At a price of $ 25 million and a size approaching that of a football field, the Shiva laser is the first of the " megalasers " at LLNL and brings the field of ICF research fully within the realm of " big science ".

** The NOVETTE laser at LLNL comes on line and is used as a test bed for the next generation of ICF lasers, specifically the NOVA laser.

* 1984-The huge 10 beam NOVA laser at LLNL is completed and switches on in December.

* 1990-Decision to construct the NIF " beamlet " laser at LLNL is made.

While the LLNL installation was the largest Blue Gene / L installation, many smaller installations followed.

However, owning to the fact that LANL and LLNL were nuclear weapons facilities, some aspects of security are likely to doom finding out greater detail of many of these pieces of software.

Today, LLNL computer scientists focus on creating the highly complex physics models, visualization codes, and other unique applications tailored to specific research requirements.

Award of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory contract to LLNS LLC took effect October 1, 2007, rounding out Bechtel's control of the bulk of the US nuclear weapons facilities including LANL ( design ), LLNL ( design ), Savannah River Site ( nuclear materials ), Hanford Site ( nuclear materials ), Pantex Plant ( assembly / disassembly ), and Y-12 National Security Complex ( nuclear materials ).

LLNL decided early on to concentrate on glass lasers, while other facilities studied gas lasers using carbon dioxide ( e. g. Antares laser, Los Alamos National Laboratory ) or KrF ( e. g. Nike laser, Naval Research Laboratory ).

LLNL had decided early on to concentrate on glass lasers, while other facilities studied gas lasers using carbon dioxide ( e. g. Antares laser, Los Alamos National Laboratory ) or KrF ( e. g. Nike laser, Naval Research Laboratory ).

In addition, LLNL conducts work-for-others research and development for various Defense Department sponsors, other federal agencies, including NASA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ), National Institutes of Health, and Environmental Protection Agency, a number of California State agencies, and private industry.

* Terascale Simulation Facility: LLNL ’ s Terascale Simulation Facility houses one of the world ’ s most powerful computers, Blue Gene / L.

Their purchase of one of the first UNIVAC computers, set the precedent for LLNL ’ s history of acquiring and exploiting the fastest and most capable supercomputers in the world.

The November 2007 release of the 30th TOP500 list of the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world, has LLNL ’ s Blue Gene / L computer in first place for the seventh consecutive time.

For the most part the Executive Committee has appointed senior managers at LLNL as the primary officers of LLNS.

The JGI workforce draws most heavily from Berkeley Lab and LLNL.

A great deal of software also has been written by LLNL personnel to optimize the operation and management of the computer systems, including operating system extensions such as CHAOS ( Linux Clustering ) and resource management packages such as SLURM.

Based on modeling runs using the LASNEX computer program developed at LLNL, it was estimated that LMF would require a driver of about 10 MJ ,.

* The LLNL engineering activities include micro-and nanotechnology, lasers and optics, biotechnology, precision engineering, nondestructive characterization, modeling and simulation, systems and decision science, and sensors, imaging and communications.

LLNL has a long history of developing computing software and systems.

An attempt to succeed CTSS was started by LLNL named NLTSS ( New Livermore Time Sharing System ) to embody advanced concepts for operating systems to better integrate communication using a new network protocol named LINCS while also keeping the best features of CTSS.

Other supercomputers that use the Lustre file system include the third fastest Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL ) and systems at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( LBNL ), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( LLNL ), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Texas Advanced Computing Center and NASA in North America, in Asia at Tokyo Institute of Technology, and one of the largest systems in Europe at CEA.

* LBNL ’ s SRMs have been used in production in the Earth Systems Grid ( ESG ) Project to provide transparent access from multiple remote storage systems at NERSC, NCAR, ORNL, LLNL, and LANL, including HPSS and NCAR-MSS.

On 6 / 18 / 2012, LLNL re-took the lead on the latest edition of the list of the world ’ s Top 500 supercomputers with Sequoia, a 16. 32 petaflops system packing more than 1. 5 million custom Power cores.

The LLNL BlueGene / L installation held the first position in the TOP500 list for 3. 5 years, until in June 2008 it was overtaken by IBM's Cell-based Roadrunner system at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was the first system to surpass the 1 PetaFLOPS mark.

As of November 2010, the center houses three TOP500 supercomputers ; the oldest and still fastest of which, a BlueGene / L system designed for protein folding simulations, called BGW ( Blue Gene Watson ), entered the list in the 06 / 2005 issue, then positioned second behind fellow Blue Gene / L in LLNL.