Enabling Technologies for PetaFLOPS Computing Book Published

Objective: The primary goal of the Workshop on Enabling Technologies for Peta(FL)OPS Computing, held February 1994 in Pasadena, CA, was to conduct and disseminate the first comprehensive assessment of the field of petaFLOPS computing systems and to establish a baseline of understanding with respect to its opportunities, challenges, and critical elements.

Approach: A workshop on petaFLOPS computing was organized to identify applications of that scale, determine the scope of the technical challenge, identify critical enabling technologies that could lead to petaFLOPS computing capability, establish key issues requiring further research, and recommend elements of a near-term research agenda.

Accomplishments: The final workshop report, published in book form, captures the findings of an historic first meeting of key technical leaders and developers in high-performance computing. That event was convened to set a trajectory of technology investment and innovation over the next two decades in order to reach a target of sustainable petaFLOPS performance capability. The workshop involved more than 60 experts in all facets of high-performance computing technology. Areas covered included applications and algorithms, device technology, architecture, and software technology.

Significance This book is the first comprehensive book ever published on petaFLOPS computing and establishes the feasibility of achieving petaFLOPS-capable systems in the next 20 years. It also identifies key technical challenges that must be addressed and provides recommendations concerning immediate actions that will initiate the process towards petaFLOPS computation.

Status/Plans: Enabling Technologies for Petaflops Computing, edited by Thomas Sterling/CESDIS, Paul Messina/Caltech, and Paul H. Smith/HQ/RC (ISBN 0-262-69176-0, $26.95), has been published by MIT Press and is therefore available to the general technical community. It was used as the starting point for the 1995 PetaFLOPS Computing Summer School/Workshop: Applications and Algorithms Challenges for PetaFLOPS Computing and will serve in this capacity for the PetaFLOPS Architecture Workshop to be conducted next spring.

Point of Contact:

Dr. Thomas Sterling
Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences (CESDIS)
Goddard Space Flight Center
tron@chesapeake.gsfc.nasa.gov
301-286-2757