Approaching petascale computing

Several federal agencies have announced plans to acquire large scale systems within the next few years which will have peak performance in the petascale range. In order to make sure that end users can take maximum advantage of these systems, Federal agencies, cooperating through the NITRD Program are following a multi-faceted approach which: 1) provides access to leadership class platforms at DOD, DOE, NASA and NSF, 2) determines how to handle data on the petabyte scale through their File Systems and I/O activities, and 3) aids the development of petascale applications through support of multi-disciplinary teams as in DOE/SC SciDAC Program, NSF science application programs, and DOE/NNSA ASC Academic Alliance Program for example. In addition, the DARPA HPCS Program is focused on the development of next generation architectures that will substantially improve the productivity, useability and application scope of multi-petaflop systems. This BOF, presented by the HEC IWG will review the implementation, status and future plans for these and other activities.