Staying on top in supercomputing.Staying on top in supercomputing To stay ahead of the rest of the world in supercomputing capability, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. should add to current levels of support at least $1.5 billion over the next five years, says a recent report summarizing the recommendations of a panel of experts familiar with high-performance computing High-speed computing, which typically refers to supercomputers used in scientific research. . The panel proposes that the funds be used to "accelerate the creation of innovative hardware and software, effective mathematical techniques, and new university curricula that will attract and educate students in computational science | Computational science (or scientific computing) is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and numerical solution techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific, social scientific and engineering problems. and engineering.' The report, "A National Computing Initiative,' was sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization (SIAM), based in Philadelphia. The SIAM report is the first major study since 1982 (SN: 5/14/83, p.309) to look at the state of supercomputing in the United States. Whereas the 1982 report focused on researchers' access to supercomputing facilities and eventually led to the establishment of five National Supercomputer supercomputer, a state-of-the-art, extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specialized scientific and engineering applications that must handle very Centers (SN: 3/2/85, p.135), the SIAM findings respond to several new issues. One concern is that the rapidly growing applications of supercomputing have already outpaced the power of currently available supercomputers. Another concern is that software development is seriously lagging Lagging Strategy used by a firm to stall payments, normally in response to exchange rate projections. behind other innovations. Obstacles such as the lack of strong, carefully designed courses in computational science and engineering also stand in the way of innovative supercomputing use. Supercomputer users--economists, scientists and engineers --are "creating a demand for faster hardware, better architecture and more creative software,' says Harold J. Raveche of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N.Y.; coeducational; founded and opened 1824 as Rensselaer School; chartered 1826. It was called Rensselaer Institute from 1837 to 1861. in Troy, N.Y., "and that's going to drive our industries.' Raveche chaired the SIAM workshop that led to the report. "There are a series of applications, which could have a profound effect on manufacturing and design, electronics, and so on,' he says, "that are now waiting for this computational power.' |
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