LBJ School News Brief

Expert panel looks
at new trends in
U.S. supercomputing

EVENT: “Of Crays and Clusters: The Future of U.S. Supercomputing,” a panel discussion on the security, economic, and scientific implications of the growing separation between government/defense and civilian supercomputer applications.

WHEN: 12:15 – 1:45 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005.

WHERE: Avaya Room, ACES 2.302, University of Texas at Austin.

BACKGROUND: Free and open to the public, this event is sponsored by the University of Texas Global Challenges Initiative in cooperation with the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Department of Computer Science.

Admiral Bobby R. Inman, interim dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, will introduce the event, and Professor Hans Mark of UT Austin’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics will serve as moderator. Panelists include Donald Becker, founder and chief scientist of Scyld Software, LBJ School Professor Kenneth S. Flamm, Professor Stephen W. Keckler of UT Austin’s Department of Computer Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor Marc Snir, who heads the Department of Computer Science at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In an increasingly globalized and information-driven world, the intersection between government-funded supercomputer technology and international security policy is inextricably linked. New developments in the supercomputing sector significantly influence defense budgeting, innovation in weapons design and procurement, intelligence gathering and processing, and military strategy. The impact of computer technology on security issues and foreign policy has led many scholars to proclaim that the defense sector is undergoing a “revolution in military affairs.”

A forthcoming report from the Computer Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council titled “The Future of Supercomputing” concludes that the needs of some high-end defense and government users are diverging from the "cluster" approaches to high performance computing dominant in most scientific and commercial computing applications. The widening gap between government and civilian uses for supercomputers raises important questions for U.S. national security policy, which has become increasingly dependent on advances in supercomputer technology.

For additional information, including biographies of the event presenters, visit http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/news/spring2005/supercomp/.

For more information, contact Mike Gerson at 512-236-8263.

24 January 2005

Comments to: lbjweb@uts.cc.utexas.edu

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