The University of Texas at Austin (UT) has begun early operations of Horizon, a next-generation supercomputer expected to become the nation’s largest academic system dedicated to open scientific research. The system will give researchers access to expanded computing capabilities to pursue discoveries and solve complex scientific challenges while strengthening Texas’ position as a leader in advanced computing and research.
Horizon is the centerpiece of the National Science Foundation’s Leadership-Class Computing Facility at UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). Developed in partnership with several private firms and developers, Horizon is housed at a Sabey Data Centers facility in Round Rock.
Unlike traditional systems designed around standard performance benchmarks, Horizon was shaped with input from 11 nationally selected research teams whose scientific projects helped guide the system’s development and testing. The teams recently gathered to discuss the research challenges Horizon will help address as it enters early operations.
Operating 15 to 20 times faster than Frontera for many scientific applications and 100 times faster or more for AI workloads, Horizon is expected to accelerate research involving disease modeling, earthquake and natural hazard prediction, new energy materials, artificial intelligence and the origins and evolution of galaxies, allowing researchers to tackle scientific questions that were previously out of reach.
While funded primarily through a $457 million National Science Foundation grant, Horizon also reflects Texas’ investment in advanced computing. State lawmakers appropriated about $20 million to expand the system’s AI capabilities, strengthening TACC’s ability to attract leading researchers and support advancements in medicine, energy, artificial intelligence and other fields.
TACC has anchored U.S. academic supercomputing for two decades, with past systems supporting breakthroughs from early coronavirus modeling to confirmation of gravitational wave detections. Frontera, the system Horizon succeeds, has been the fastest supercomputer on a U.S. university campus since 2019. The Leadership-Class Computing Facility also extends beyond UT Austin, partnering with the Atlanta University Center Consortium, a group of four historically Black colleges and universities, and supercomputing centers at the University of Illinois, Carnegie Mellon and UC San Diego, spreading computing access and expertise nationally rather than concentrating it in Texas alone.
Horizon is expected to become fully operational as additional computing capacity is deployed through late 2026 and early 2027, expanding access to researchers and further establishing Texas as a hub for high-performance computing and AI-enabled scientific discovery.
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