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Executive Summary
Pages 1-10

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From page 1...
... The advances in mainstream computing brought about by improved processor performance have enabled some former supercomputing needs to be addressed by clusters of commodity processors. Yet important applications, some vital to our nation's security, require technology that is only available in the most advanced custom-built systems.
From page 2...
... From an economic perspective, there are large new markets that are distinct from supercomputing -- for example, personal computing devices of various kinds, computers invisibly embedded in many kinds of artifacts, and applications that use large amounts of computing in relatively undemanding ways. As a consequence, potential providers of supercomputing systems and software and potential creators of future supercomputing technology are fewer in number than they once were.
From page 3...
... The committee emphasizes the need for developing an integrated plan rather than coordinating distinct supercomputing plans through a diffuse interagency structure. An integrated plan is not an integrated budget.
From page 4...
... investments in supercomputing and current plans are not sufficient to provide the supercomputing capabilities that our country will need. It needs supercomputers that satisfy critical requirements in areas such as cryptography and stockpile stewardship, as well as systems that will enable breakthroughs for the broad scientific and technological progress underlying a strong and robust U.S.
From page 5...
... It is important to have multiple suppliers for any key technology in order to maintain competition, to prevent technical stagnation, to provide diverse supercomputing ecosystems that will address diverse needs, and to reduce risk. However, it is unrealistic to expect that such narrow markets will attract a large number of vendors.
From page 6...
... When new commercial providers emerge, the government should purchase their products and redirect its own efforts toward technology that it cannot otherwise obtain. Barriers to the replacement of application programming interfaces are very high, owing to the large sunk investments in application software.
From page 7...
... Over the last decade the advance in peak supercomputing performance was largely due to the advance in microprocessor performance driven by increased miniaturization, with some contribution from increased parallelism. Perhaps because a large fraction of supercomputing improvements resulted from these advances, few novel technologies were introduced in supercomputer systems, and supercomputing research investments decreased.
From page 8...
... In light of the relatively small community of supercomputing researchers, international collaborations are particularly beneficial. The climate modeling community, for one, has long embraced that view.
From page 9...
... It makes little sense to restrict sales of commodity systems built from components that are not export controlled. Because restrictions on the export of supercomputing technology may damage international collaboration, the benefit of using export controls to prevent potential adversaries or proliferators from accessing key supercomputing technology has to be carefully weighed against that damage.
From page 10...
... All the research communities in need of supercomputing capability have a shared responsibility to provide direction for the supercomputing infrastructure they use and to ensure that resources are available for sustaining the supercomputing ecosystems. Funding for the acquisition and operation of the research supercomputing infrastructure should be clearly separated from funding for computer and computational science and engineering research.


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