Berkeley Lab Advances Doudna with Early Access System

NERSC's next-gen supercomputer Doudna gets a pilot system named Cech to test processes before full deployment.

Mar. 18, 2026 at 2:09am

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The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) has taken delivery of the NERSC-10 Pilot Early Access System (EAS), a smaller version of the upcoming Doudna supercomputer. The EAS, named Cech, will allow NERSC staff and vendor Dell Technologies to refine assembly, delivery, installation, and integration processes before the full-scale Doudna system is deployed in late 2026. Cech will also be used to test new software systems and technologies that will power Doudna, which is named after Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna.

Why it matters

Deploying a new supercomputer is a complex process, and the EAS allows NERSC and Dell to test the entire process before the full Doudna system arrives. This early hands-on work ensures the final supercomputer integrates smoothly into NERSC's operations and supports the Genesis Mission, the Department of Energy's AI initiative.

The details

The EAS Cech includes 72 NVIDIA Grace CPUs and 144 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, interconnected by NVIDIA's Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking. It will also feature Dell's energy-efficient liquid cooling technology. Cech will be used to test a new modular software stack, monitoring and telemetry systems, and ways to connect to NERSC's existing data storage and external resources.

  • Cech was delivered to NERSC in January 2026.
  • The full-scale Doudna supercomputer is planned for deployment in late 2026.

The players

NERSC

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a U.S. Department of Energy user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Dell Technologies

The vendor providing the NERSC-10 Pilot Early Access System (EAS) and the full-scale Doudna supercomputer.

Jennifer Doudna

The biochemist honored with a Nobel Prize for her work on the gene-editing technology CRISPR, after whom the upcoming NERSC supercomputer will be named.

Thomas Cech

The chemist awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA, after whom the EAS is named.

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What they’re saying

“We are excited to take delivery of the early access system. This is an important step in deploying Doudna for NERSC's 11,000-plus users. We plan to use the EAS to develop and test the software stack for Doudna in collaboration with Dell Technologies, NVIDIA, and our other partners. This opportunity to polish our processes helps ensure a great user experience when we deploy the full system.”

— Sudip Dosanjh, NERSC Director

“NERSC is where the future of science becomes real. The early access system is the first step toward Doudna, which will set the blueprint for how federal agencies scale HPC and AI - securely, efficiently, and at mission speed.”

— Paul Perez, Senior Fellow, Dell Technologies Federal

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