[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 5, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1575-E1576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUPERCOMPUTING APPLICATIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 5, 2001

  Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of 
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University 
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and its new role in building the 
largest, most comprehensive computational infrastructure ever deployed 
for open scientific research. The Distributed Terascale Facility, or 
DTF, will provide the computing power that will enable the scientific 
discoveries of the 21st century, including computers capable of 
processing trillions of calculations per second and hundreds of 
terabytes of data storage capacity. The DTF computing systems will 
begin operation in 2002 and the network connecting these computational 
and data resources will be 16 times faster than today's fastest high 
speed research network.
  On Wednesday, September 5, in my State of Illinois, a new facility is 
being dedicated, which will house the main computing engines of the 
DTF. The state-of-the-art facility will be connected to resources and 
research centers across the country through an ultra-highspeed network.
  There is no question that scientific research is crucial to our 
nation's future success. Scientific discoveries and technological 
innovations not only drive our economy, but they provide a better 
quality of life for our citizens. In the recent past, we have seen 
phenomenal scientific advances that promise to help us understand the 
workings of the brain, discover new drugs to fight cancer, accurately 
predict severe storms, and build safer, more durable airplanes, 
buildings and bridges. The high-performance computers and resources 
connected by an ultrafast network to form the DTA ``teragrid'' will 
enable the discoveries of the next century. Using the teragrid, 
scientists and researchers across the continent will be able to share 
resources, call upon remote databases, develop new applications and 
visualize the results of complex computer simulations.
  I applaud all those involved in this partnership to make the DTF a 
reality: the National science Foundation for providing $53 million for 
the project; Qwest Communications, IBM, and Intel, for their 
technological contributions; and the research centers that will build 
and deploy the DTF-The National Center for Supercomputing Applications 
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the San Diego 
Supercomputing Center at the University of California, San Diego; 
Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, and the California 
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
  In closing, I extend my best wishes and congratulations to the 
dedicated people in these organizations who are clearly committed to 
employing cutting-edge technologies to build the 21st century's 
computing and information infrastructure. This infrastructure will help 
keep our businesses competitive, assist the best scientists and 
researchers across our

[[Page E1576]]

nation in advancing the frontiers of discovery, and allow us to solve 
the most pressing problems of our time.

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