About | High Performance Data Facility Hub

Overview

On October 16, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the High Performance Data Facility (HPDF), a scientific user facility specializing in advanced infrastructure for data-intensive science. DOE’s Office of Science (SC) named Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) as the HPDF lead. The HPDF Project will be a partnership between Jefferson Lab and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

HPDF will be a first-of-its-kind SC user facility that fits within and adds world-class capabilities to the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and SC data and computing infrastructure ecosystem. The facility’s mission will be to enable and accelerate scientific discovery by delivering data services at the scale necessary to optimize the use of scientific data as valued asset.

As a key component of the U.S. Department of Energy’s American Science Cloud and Genesis Mission, HPDF will dramatically increase the capacity and flexibility of the nation’s research computing infrastructure. HPDF is envisioned as the long-term home for Genesis data services — integrating data sources, repositories, and processing into a multi-facility AI powerhouse.

The project team is tasked with designing and delivering a geographically resilient and innovative HPDF, capable of meeting the needs of diverse users, institutions, and use cases. The joint project will blaze new paths in institutional engagement and outreach in the emerging era of artificial intelligence-enabled integrated science.

Partner Institutions

Jefferson Lab

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), in Newport News, Va., is the home of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, a world-leading nuclear physics scientific resource in operation since 1995. Enabling science is the cornerstone of scientific computing at Jefferson Lab. The Computational Science and Technology Division supports multiple use cases in nuclear physics, with extensive real-life experience processing data-intensive workloads from data acquisition through accepted publications.

A new data center building will expand the lab’s existing infrastructure. Funding for this building is shared by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Completion of the infrastructure required for the HPDF Project is anticipated in 2029.

Jefferson Lab’s leadership in scientific computing and data science in the nuclear physics community provides a conduit to connect nuclear physics experimental use cases and high-performance computing, analogous to the role Berkeley Lab plays in connecting high-energy physics to HPC facilities.

Berkeley Lab

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.