sequoia is dedicated to nnsa 's nuclear security agenda .
clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops ( quadrillion floating point operations per second ) , sequoia earned the number one ranking on the industry standard top500 list of the world 's fastest supercomputers released monday , june 18 , at the international supercomputing conference ( isc12 ) in hamburg , germany .
although the us 's efforts helped secure it show full pr text nnsa 's sequoia supercomputer ranked as world 's fastest supercomputer at lawrence livermore national lab passes 16 petaflops washington , d.c. – the national nuclear security administration ( nnsa ) today announced that a supercomputer called sequoia at lawrence livermore national laboratory ( llnl ) was ranked the world 's most powerful computing system .
sequoia was built for nnsa by ibm .
ibm 's sequoia help the united states keep its nuclear stockpile safe , secure , and effective without the need for underground testing , " said nnsa administrator thomas d'agostino . "
while sequoia may be the fastest , the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation 's nuclear deterrent , " said national nuclear security administration ( nnsa ) administrator thomas d'agostino . "
sequoia was capable of calculating in one hour what otherwise would have taken 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they had worked non - stop .
sequoia also represents continued american leadership