Overview

The Workshop on Enabling Technologies for Peta(FL)OPS Computing was held on February 22 through 24, 1994 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Pasadena, California. More than 60 experts in all aspects of high-performance computing technology met to establish the basis for considering future research initiatives that will lead to U.S. preeminence in development, production, and application of PetaFLOPS scaled computing systems. The objectives of the workshop were to

1. Identify applications requiring PetaFLOPS performance and determine their resource demands.
2. Determine the scope of the technical challenge to achieving effective PetaFLOPS computing.
3. Identify critical enabling technologies that can lead to PetaFLOPS computing capability.
4. Establish key research issues.
5. Recommend elements of a near-term research agenda.

The workshop focused on four major and interrelated topic areas:

• Applications and Algorithms
• Device Technology
• Architecture
• Software Technology.

Separate working groups were organized for each topic. Representatives from industry, academia, and government provided expertise in all four disciplines. The mix of talents and base of experience of this group across the spectrum of issues led to strong cross fertilization of ideas and interdisciplinary discussions which resulted in important findings.

The importance of this workshop to establishing long-term directions in high-performance computing systems research and development was emphasized by the strong sponsorship of many Federal agencies. Each agency has a vested interest in U.S. capability in this field and considers it critical to carrying out its respective mission. The sponsoring agencies were

• National Aeronautics and Space Agency
• National Science Foundation
• Department of Energy
• Advanced Research Program Agency
• National Security Agency
• Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

This report documents the issues addressed and the findings resulting from the three-day meeting in Pasadena. The report is structured for use by both policy makers and researchers in setting goals and establishing programs to respond to the challenges of achieving PetaFLOPS computing. In this report the reader will find the following:

1. The complete reports of each of the working groups
2. Summaries of the working group reports
3. The major findings of the workshop
4. Analysis and discussion of the findings and their implications for the future of high-performance computing
5. Recommendations and conclusions for near-term directions.