Excerpted from URL:
http://www.hpcc.gov/blue95/section.1.html
Each of the programs outlined is described in more detail at
the web page, well worth examining.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Federal High Performance Computing and Communications
(HPCC)
Program was created to accelerate the development of future
generations of high performance computers and networks and
the use of
these resources in the Federal government and throughout the
American
economy.
In the early 1980s American scientists, engineers, and
leaders in
government and industry recognized that advanced computer
and
communications technologies could provide vast benefits
throughout not
just the research community but the entire U.S. economy.
Senior
government, industry, and academic scientists and managers
initiated
and are implementing the HPCC Program to extend U.S.
leadership in
these technologies and to apply them to areas of profound
impact on
and interest to the American people. The National
High-Performance
Computing Program was formally established following the
passage of
the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (Public Law
102-194),
introduced by then Senator Gore.
The scalable high performance computing systems, advanced
high speed
computer communications networks, and advanced software
being
developed in the HPCC Program are necessary for science and
engineering and will contribute critical components of the
National
Information Infrastructure (NII). This infrastructure is
essential to
our national competitiveness. It will enable us to build
digital
libraries, enhance education and lifelong learning, manage
our energy
resources better, monitor and protect the environment, and
improve
health care, manufacturing, national security, and public
access to
government information.
The Program is planned, funded, and executed through the
close
cooperation of Federal agencies and laboratories, private
industry,
and academia. These efforts are directed toward ensuring
that to the
greatest extent possible the Program meets the needs of all
communities involved and that its results are brought into
the
research and educational communities and into the commercial
marketplace as effectively as possible.
The Program is well on its way toward meeting its original
goals:
+ More than a dozen high performance computing
research centers
are in operation nationwide. More than 100 scalable
high
performance systems are in operation at these
centers. These
include large scale parallel systems, vector
parallel
computing systems, hybrid systems, workstations and
workstation clusters, and networked heterogeneous
systems.
The largest of these systems now provides more than
50
gigaflops (billions of floating point operations
per second)
performance on large problems. The HPCC Programs
1996 goal of
developing high performance systems capable of
sustained
teraflops (trillions of floating point operations
per second)
performance is well on the way to being met.
+ The HPCC-funded communications networks, part of
the
Internet, continue to experience phenomenal growth
in size,
speed, and number of users. These networks enable
researchers
to access high performance computers and advanced
scientific
instruments easily, and have begun to allow
independence of
geographical location.
+ One illustration of the global reach of HPCC
technology is
that the Internet now extends across the country
and
throughout much of the world. The Internet links
more than
two million computers, more than 15,000 networks in
the U.S.
and more than 6,000 outside the U.S., and 1,000
4-year
colleges and universities, 100 community colleges,
1,000 high
schools, and 300 academic libraries in the U.S.
+ More than half a dozen gigabit testbeds conduct
research in
high capacity networks. These network testbeds
connect 24
sites, including many of the high performance
computing
research centers. Seven Federal agencies, 18
telecommunications carriers, 12 universities, and
two state
supercomputer centers participate. The testbeds
develop
technologies to handle the NII's increased demand
for
computer communications, along with greater
accessibility,
interoperability, and security. The Program goal of
demonstrating gigabit (billions of bits) per second
transmission speeds by 1996 is well on the way to
being met.
+ Teams of researchers are using scalable systems to
discover
new knowledge and demonstrate new capabilities that
were not
possible with earlier technologies. These
researchers are
addressing the Grand Challenges, fundamental
problems in
science and engineering with broad economic and
scientific
impact whose solutions can be advanced by applying
high
performance computing techniques and resources.
Many of these
challenges are associated with HPCC agency
missions. Agencies
are increasingly working with U.S. industry to use
their
Grand Challenge applications software and develop
new
software that will improve commercial and
industrial
competitiveness.
Users of the new scalable computing systems with
their high
performance on large problems and larger memories
are able to
address more complex, more realistic problems. We
are
beginning to understand our world better and to
improve our
lives:
- Improved modeling of the Earth and its atmosphere
has
sharpened our ability to predict the movement and
characteristics of storms and other forms of severe
weather.
With improved forecasts, there will be more lives
saved and
an overall positive economic impact due to reduced
property
loss and evacuation of smaller endangered areas
along the
coast and elsewhere.
- New air and water quality models are enabling
improved
environmental decision making.
- Improvements in the design and manufacture of
goods are
yielding better products. Both the production
processes and
products such as cars and airplanes are becoming
more energy
efficient.
- We are learning more about how the human body
functions and
are improving our ability to diagnose and treat
diseases.
+ The thousands of researchers who develop
fundamental HPCC and
NII technologies and applications form the vanguard
that
hardware and software vendors rely upon to promote
the use of
high performance computers and communications
throughout the
U.S. economy. Hundreds of teachers and thousands of
students
access HPCC resources, and the Program conducts
hundreds of
training events for thousands of trainees. Dozens
of small
systems have been installed at colleges and
universities. The
goal of these efforts is to train a nation of
knowledgeable
users and thereby fully incorporate HPCC and NII
technologies
and applications into the U.S. economy.
_________________________________________________________________
HPCC and the NII are tightly interwoven. While the Federal
agencies
that participate in the HPCC Program are working to enable
the NII, it
is the private sector that will deploy it. Many policy and
regulatory
obstacles will be cleared through the workings of the
interagency
Information Infrastructure Task Force.
The capabilities being developed under the HPCC Program
provide much
of the technology base critically needed for the National
Information
Infrastructure:
+ Scalable computing technologies provide the
foundation for
the computing systems needed by the NII. For
example:
- The microprocessors at the heart of today's most
powerful
scalable parallel computers appear in relatively
inexpensive
desktop workstations and personal computers today
and will be
found in the information appliances in the homes of
tomorrow.
- The same technology that provides high speed
connectivity
between computer processors and memory can be used
to build
switches for the NII's high speed networks.
- The same client/server technology used to supply
data from
remote computers to Grand Challenge computations
can be used
to disseminate information to American households.
- NII applications such as the entertainment
industry's
"video on demand" will soon use the scalable
parallel
computing and mass storage systems that have long
been part
of high performance computing research centers.
+ The technology for the high bandwidth networks
needed by
Grand Challenge researchers to move data between
computers
and to distribute information to users of the NII
is being
developed at the gigabit testbeds.
+ The software technologies, including operating
systems and
software development environments, being developed
under HPCC
have widespread application to general-purpose
systems, not
just those identified as "numerically intensive."
+ Many National Challenge applications depend upon
computationally intensive Grand Challenge
applications. For
example:
- Improving health care requires biomedical
research (such as
improved molecular design of drugs).
- Improved environmental monitoring requires
computationally
intensive environmental models.
- Effective response to natural and man-made
disasters
depends on weather forecasting and environmental
models.
- Developing advanced methods for product and
process design
and manufacturing requires numerically-intensive
prototyping
of those products and processes.
- The "information" in the National Information
Infrastructure will include the data used by and
the results
from Grand Challenge research.
New services are being developed to support multimedia
applications,
digital libraries technologies, appropriate privacy and
security
protection, and increasingly higher levels of performance.
Software
development environments and building blocks for interfacing
humans
and computers must be created. These new tools will enable
application
developers to construct complex, large-scale, network-based,
user-friendly, and information-intensive applications. These
technologies provide the foundation upon which National
Challenge
applications will be developed.
The 10 agencies that participate in the HPCC Program are:
ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency
NSF National Science Foundation
DOE Department of Energy
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NIH National Institutes of Health
NSA National Security Agency
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
ED Department of Education
Through coordinated planning and research and development,
these
agencies are developing an integrated infrastructure of HPCC
and NII
technologies. No individual agency has either the mission or
the
expertise to develop all components of the infrastructure,
but each
plays a necessary and unique role in the overall program.
The HPCC Program is organized into five components with the
following
key aspects:
High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS)
+ Accelerated development of scalable computing
systems, with
associated software, including networks of
heterogeneous
systems ranging from affordable workstations to
large scale
high performance systems
+ Technologies to enable the use of advanced
component,
packaging, mass storage, and communications
technologies for
the design of large scale parallel computing
systems
National Research and Education Network (NREN)
+ Broadened network connectivity of the research and
education
communities to high performance computing and
research
resources
+ Accelerated development and deployment of
networking
technologies
Advanced Software Technology and Algorithms (ASTA)
+ Prototype solutions to Grand Challenge problems
+ Improved algorithms, software technologies, and
software
tools for more efficient use of scalable computing
systems
+ Deployment of advanced high performance computing
systems
Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications
(IITA)
+ Prototype solutions to National Challenge problems
using HPCC
enabling technologies
+ Accelerated development and deployment of NII
enabling
technologies
Basic Research and Human Resources (BRHR)
+ Support for research, training, and education in
computer
science, computer engineering, and computational
science; and
infrastructure enhancement through the addition of
HPCC
resources
The total FY 1994 HPCC Program budget for 10 participating
agencies is
$938 million. For FY 1995, the proposed HPCC Program budget
for nine
agencies is $1.155 billion, representing a 23 percent
increase over
the appropriated FY 1994 level.
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