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The Future of Supercomputing An Interim Report (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Pages 1-4

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From page 1...
... Supercomputers are used to solve complex problems, including the simulation and modeling of physical phenomena such as climate change, explosions, or the behavior of molecules; the analysis of data from sources such as national security intelligence, genome sequencing, or astronomical observations; or the intricate design of engineered products. Their use is important for national security and defense, as well as for research and development in science and engineering.
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From page 2...
... Higher node performance is achieved by using commercial scalar microprocessors with 64-bit data paths intended primarily for commercial servers or nodes designed specially for supercomputing, rather than the high-volume, 32-bit scalar microprocessors used in workstations and lower capability cluster systems. The custom nodes tend to use special mechanisms such as vectors or multithreading to reduce memory latency rather than relying solely on the more limited latency avoidance afforded by caches.
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From page 3...
... EVOLUTION IN SUPERCOMPUTING A major policy issue for supercomputing is the proper balance between investments that exploit and 3 evolve current supercomputmg architectures and software tine evolutionary aspect' and Investments in alternative approaches that may lead to a paradigm shift (the innovative aspect)
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From page 4...
... Importantly, advances in algorithms can sometimes improve performance much more than architectural and software advances do. More realistic simulations and modeling require not only increased supercomputer performance but also new methods to handle finer spatial resolution, larger time scales, and very large amounts of observational or experimental data.
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Key Terms

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  • scalar microprocessors
  • commodity components

  • supercomputing programs
  • various approaches
  • revolutionary advances
  • application classes
  • nuclear stockpile

  • computational requirements
  • easily realized
  • software designers
  • memory bandwidth
  • issues described

  • finer spatial
  • handle finer
  • custom software
  • language approaches
  • existing supercomputing

  • efforts required
  • asc acquisition
  • current solutions
  • multiple physical
  • creating innovative

  • essential government
  • powerful computer
  • existing architectures
  • specific findings
  • scientific consideration


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