diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-core/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-core/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b05cade162ed1e51ed689472f2278a7fd4ba19e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-core/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+##############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2013-2018, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
+# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
+#
+# This file is part of Spack.
+# Created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
+# LLNL-CODE-647188
+#
+# For details, see https://github.com/spack/spack
+# Please also see the NOTICE and LICENSE files for our notice and the LGPL.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1, February 1999.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
+# conditions of the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+# License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+##############################################################################
+from spack import *
+
+
+class SstCore(AutotoolsPackage):
+    """The Structural Simulation Toolkit (SST) was developed to explore
+    innovations in highly concurrent systems where the ISA, microarchitecture,
+    and memory interact with the programming model and communications system"""
+
+    homepage = "http://sst-simulator.org/"
+    url      = "https://github.com/sstsimulator/sst-core/releases/download/v8.0.0_Final/sstcore-8.0.0.tar.gz"
+    git      = "https://github.com/sstsimulator/sst-core.git"
+
+    version('develop', branch='devel')
+    version('8.0.0', sha256='34a62425c3209cf80b6bca99cb0dcc328b67fb84ed92d5e6d6c975ad9319ba8a')
+
+    variant('mpi', default=True, description='Support multi-node simulations using MPI')
+    variant('boost', default=False, description='Use boost')
+
+    depends_on('autoconf@1.68:', type='build', when='@develop')
+    depends_on('automake@1.11.1:', type='build', when='@develop')
+    depends_on('libtool@1.2.4:', type='build', when='@develop')
+    depends_on('m4', type='build', when='@develop')
+
+    depends_on('python@:2')
+    depends_on('zlib', type='build')
+    depends_on('mpi', when='+mpi')
+    depends_on('boost@1.56.0:', type='build', when='+boost')
+
+    def configure_args(self):
+        args = []
+        spec = self.spec
+
+        if '~mpi' in spec:
+            args.append('--disable-mpi')
+
+        if '+boost' in spec:
+            args.append('--with-boost=%s' % spec['boost'].prefix)
+
+        return args
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-macro/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-macro/package.py
index 9722e30f36f66ccc12c4d4a660b5101ea1369b10..5cd80275a30d8768709886a5d65d3e0de8835219 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-macro/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/sst-macro/package.py
@@ -54,13 +54,16 @@ class SstMacro(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('otf2', when='+otf2')
     depends_on('llvm+clang@:5.99.99', when='+skeletonizer')
     depends_on('mpi', when='+mpi')
+    depends_on('sst-core@8.0.0', when='@8.0.0 +core')
+    depends_on('sst-core@develop', when='@develop +core')
 
+    variant('core', default=False, description='Use SST Core for PDES')
+    variant('mpi', default=True, description='Enable distributed PDES simulation')
     variant('otf2', default=False, description='Enable OTF2 trace emission and replay support')
+    variant('shared', default=True, description='Build shared libraries')
     variant('skeletonizer', default=False, description='Enable Clang source-to-source autoskeletonization')
-    variant('threaded', default=False, description='Enable thread-parallel PDES simulation')
-    variant('mpi', default=True, description='Enable distributed PDES simulation')
     variant('static', default=True, description='Build static libraries')
-    variant('shared', default=True, description='Build shared libraries')
+    variant('threaded', default=False, description='Enable thread-parallel PDES simulation')
 
     @run_before('autoreconf')
     def bootstrap(self):
@@ -90,6 +93,9 @@ def configure_args(self):
             if '+skeletonizer' in spec:
                 args.append('--with-clang=' + spec['llvm'].prefix)
 
+        if '+core' in spec:
+            args.append('--with-sst-core=%s' % spec['sst-core'].prefix)
+
         # Optional MPI support
         if '+mpi' in spec:
             env['CC'] = spec['mpi'].mpicc