****************************************
A Holistic Approach to Petascale Computing
One of the most significant barriers to sustained performance of more than a thousand trillion calculations per second -- called petascale computing -- is achieving the scalability of the hardware and software across a broad set of existing applications. The goal of the technologies delivered under this contract is to allow a wide spectrum of current applications and programming styles to cross the multi-petascale barrier in sustained performance. In addition, IBM's system architecture and design approach will enable a rapidly increasing number of programmers and developers to achieve high productivity for small scale and petascale systems.
Developing computing systems that are more usable by the national security community, science and industry is a key part of DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) mission -- an area of high performance computing which has historically been under-addressed. IBM will tackle this productivity challenge through an end-to-end holistic approach to advanced system architecture and design as well as software development in the following areas: operating systems, programming models, compilers, libraries, file systems, application development tools, performance tools, systems and data management, and serviceability.
Cray Signs $250 Million Agreement With DARPA to Develop Breakthrough Adaptive Supercomputer
**********************************AN EXCERPT *********************************
SEATTLE, WA, Nov 21, 2006 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (CRAY) announced today that it has been awarded a $250 million agreement from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Under this agreement, Cray will develop a revolutionary new supercomputer based on the company's Adaptive Supercomputing vision, a phased approach to hybrid computing that integrates a range of processing technologies into a single scalable platform.
"This is a great day for Cray and the worldwide supercomputing community," said Peter Ungaro, Cray's president and CEO. "The DARPA HPCS program is an important force that is shaping the future of HPC and the entire computer industry. With this Phase III award, DARPA has recognized Cray as a leading innovator with the technology, vision and expertise required to deliver world-class, revolutionary supercomputing systems."
DARPA introduced the High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program to facilitate development of the next generation of supercomputers for the national security, research, and industrial user communities. Cray's HPCS development program, code-named "Cascade," will produce a system with exceptional programmability, portability and robustness -- capable of scaling to unprecedented levels of sustained performance on real applications.
Under the Cascade program, Cray will develop a new hybrid system architecture that combines multiple processor technologies, a new high-performance network and an innovative adaptive software layer into a single integrated system. Designed to efficiently scale to large numbers of processors, the system will maximize productivity and performance by automatically matching the most effective processor technology to each application.
Over the course of the contract, Cray will incorporate elements of the Cascade program into commercially available products, including the peak-petaflops supercomputer, code-named "Baker," that will be delivered to the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In addition, ORNL will be one of Cray's Phase III partners, focused around scaling from both the systems perspective and the performance of key applications.
"High productivity computing is a key technology enabler for meeting our national security and economic competitiveness requirements," noted Dr. William Harrod, DARPA program manager, in the DARPA press release announcing the Phase III award. "High productivity computing contributes substantially to the design and development of advanced vehicles and weapons, planning and execution of operational military scenarios, the intelligence problems of cryptanalysis and image processing, the maintenance of our nuclear stockpile, and is a key enabler for science and discovery in security-related fields."