[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 87 (Monday, July 10, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           COMPUTER MILESTONE

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                         HON. ELLEN O. TAUSCHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 10, 2000

  Mrs. TAUSCHER. Mr. Speaker, today marks the occasion of a significant 
scientific achievement. Today, scientists at Livermore National 
Laboratory have started assembling the world's most powerful computer. 
This computer, known as ASCI White, delivered to Livermore on 28 
tractor-trailer trucks, is capable of 12 trillion calculations per 
second. Mr. Speaker, that is more than three times faster than the most 
powerful computer in existence today.
  One specific achievement of this endeavor is the collaboration it 
embodies. ASCI White is the product of work by IBM and our national 
labs, and the computer will now aid the Department of Energy in the 
work of simulating nuclear explosions without conducting live tests. 
Surely, this super computer is a model for the marvelous work that 
results from strong private-public partnerships.
  Mr. Speaker. I submit the following article from the San Francisco 
Chronicle to be reprinted in the Congressional Record. And on behalf of 
this body, I would like to extend our congratulations to IBM, Livermore 
Lab, and all of the other agencies and individuals who contributed to 
this superb accomplishment.

           [From the San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 2000]

IBM Assembling Explosive New Supercomputer Processors To Mimic Nuclear 
                      Detonations at Livermore Lab

                             (Carrie Kirby)

       Technicians at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have 
     begun assembling the world's most powerful supercomputer, the 
     first sections of which were delivered by International 
     Business Machines Corp. Monday.
       The 8,100-processor computer, ASCI White, will be used to 
     simulate nuclear explosions to maintain the nation's weapons 
     stockpile. Exploding real nuclear bombs for testing purposes 
     has been forbidden since the 1996 signing of the 
     Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The testing is required to 
     ensure that the nation's aging stockpile of nuclear weapons 
     still functions properly and is safely stored.
       The processors in the $110 million computer are no 
     different than those found in high-end workstations used for 
     engineering or design. But by putting 8,000 of them together 
     in a box the size of two basketball courts, IBM has created a 
     machine capable of 12.3 trillion operations per second--what 
     scientists call a 12.3 teraflop computer.
       Armed with a calculator, it would take a human being 10 
     million years to complete the number of calculations ASCI 
     White can do in one second. That's three or four times better 
     than the previous titlist for world's most powerful 
     supercomputer, ASCI Blue Pacific, a 3.8 teraflop machine also 
     located at Lawrence Livermore. ASCI White is 1,000 times more 
     powerful than Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer that beat 
     world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, and 30,000 times 
     more powerful than the average personal computer. Its memory 
     could comfortably house the Library of Congress--twice.
       ASCI White is named for the Energy Department's Accelerated 
     Strategic Computing Initiative.
       Tractor trailers brought about a quarter of the massive 
     computer to Lawrence Livermore Monday, and the rest will 
     arrive during the summer. When it is complete, a team of 
     several hundred scientists at Lawrence Livermore will use the 
     computer to conduct the most realistic mock nuclear 
     explosions ever.
       Limited memory and computer power meant that previous 
     simulations used a simplified, two-dimensional model to 
     approximate a three-dimensional explosion.
       ``A one-dimensional problem assumes that the surface of the 
     Earth is uniform--all earth or all water,'' said David Nowak, 
     the physicist who will lead the ASCI White program at 
     Lawrence Livermore. Two-dimensional models would assume that 
     the Earth is smooth, without mountains, valleys or 
     complicated factors such as air currents. ``ASCI White allows 
     us to go to three dimensions.''
       Nowak has been anticipating getting his hands on the 
     computer for two years, while 1,000 engineers at IBM's 
     Poughkeepsie, N.Y., laboratory designed and built it. Yet he 
     knows that despite its mind-boggling abilities, ASCI White is 
     not powerful enough to simulate the blasts as realistically 
     as scientists want.
       ``To actually do the problem, we need 100 teraflops,'' 
     Nowak said. ``We think we can get that by 2004 or 2005.''
       The ASCI program calls for two more supercomputers to be 
     built. The first, with 30 teraflops, will go to Los Alamos, 
     N.M., in about two years. The second, with 100 teraflops, is 
     scheduled to be assigned to Livermore, said lab spokesman 
     David Schwoegler.

     

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