Computing Research Policy Blog

CSTB Releases Supercomputing Report

Just in time for the Supercomputing '04 conference, the National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board has released its report on the needs for U.S. supercomputing, Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing.

Study chairs Susan Graham, UC Berkeley, and Marc Snir, UIUC (and a CRA board member), will present the report here at the SC 04 on Friday, November 12, at 8:30 am.

The report concludes

that the demands for supercomputing to strengthen U.S. defense and national security cannot be satisfied with current policies and levels of spending. The federal government should provide stable, long-term funding and support multiple supercomputing hardware and software vendors in order to give scientists and policy-makers better tools to solve problems in areas such as intelligence, nuclear stockpile stewardship, and climate change.

John Markoff of the New York Times has more on the report in a story today. Here's a snippet:

"Our situation has deteriorated during the past 10 years," said Susan L. Graham, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was co-chairwoman of the panel.

The authors of the report, which was prepared for the Energy Department, said they were recommending that the federal government spend $140 million annually on new supercomputing technologies. The federal government currently spends about $42 million each year, according to a recent report of the High End Computing Revitalization Task Force, a federal government working group.

"If we don't start doing something about this now there will be nothing available in 10 years when we really need these systems, " Ms. Graham said.