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Clinton Administration Proposes Major Computer Technology Program The Clinton Administration proposes to spend $366 million in Fiscal Year 2000 on a major new Information technology research effort, to be supervised jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The effort, formally titled the Scientific Simulation Initiative (SSI), aims at develop ing, within the next five years, next-generation Computer modeling Software, able to function at speeds of trillions of calculations per second. Such massive Computer power is considered necessary to create advanced simulations to tackle some of the most challenging problems n o w confronting the U.S. research communities. The initiative is the product of a yearlong examination by DOE and NSF of the prospects for bringing new supercomputing technology online. The two agencies have been cooperating via a Joint Work shop on Advanced Scientific Computing, which concluded that the technology is on the verge of another major breakthrough: reaching füll parity with laboratory experiments and mathematical theory as a research tool. For example, according to the most recent report produced by the two agen cies' Joint working group, Report of the National Workshop on Advanced Scientific Computation, technology already h a s reached the stage at which scientists can simulate detailed fluid flows and chemical reactions in engineering applications, achievements that were beyond the ability of Computer technology only a few years ago. As a result, the report states, "the Computer literally is providing a new window through which we can observe the natural world in exquisite detail." At the same time, however, the report cautions about a "serious shortage" of sci entists and engineers who are "able to do cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research in the expanding computation aspects of their fields." SSI represents the government's attempt to both widen the "window" and to attract more young people to scientific and engineering disdplkies. The initiative's five-year plan would increase research Computer speeds one thousandfold, perhaps to 40 or even 60 teraflops. In addition, SSI would attempt to make such Comput ers accessible to the United States' entire scientific and engineering communities. Such a goal is vital, according to the work ing group report, because "there is now a growing lack of capacity in the U.S. for doing the important computations that
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already are feasible." At the same time, the government intends to begin "a vigorous effort to develop the Software, the algorithms, the communication infrastructure, and the visualization Systems" that would be nec essary to use such massive Computing power effectively. While DOE and NSF will be primarily responsible for the initiative, SSI projects also will be conducted at agencies whose responsibilities include the materials research field, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the D e p a r t m e n t of Defense (DoD), the
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