Molecular Science Computing Facility (MSCF)
As part of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) in PNNL's campus, The Molecular Science Computing Facility (MSCF) provides an integrated production computing environment, with links to external facilities within the Department of Energy, collaborating universities, and industry. The mission of EMSL is to provide advanced and unique resources to scientists engaged in research in the environmental molecular sciences and educate young scientists in the molecular sciences to meet the demanding environmental challenges of the future. As research organizations, EMSL and MSCF provide scientific resources to attain a molecular-level understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes needed to solve critical environmental problems and advance molecular science in support of the long-term environmental missions of DOE and the nation. Both computational and experimental resources are available to users at "no cost."
The MSCF supports a wide range of computational activities in environmental molecular research, from benchmark calculations on small molecules to reliable calculations on large molecules and solids to simulations of large biomolecules, as well as reactive chemical transport modeling. The main supercomputer is a Linux Cluster from Hewlett Packard with a theoretical peak performance of 11.8 Teraflops.
In preparation for procuring the next-generation high-performance computer, the "Greenbook" (PDF, 2.4Mb), containing science drivers and guidance from leading scientists, was published by the MSCF in July 2005.