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Report to the President on Developing Open Source Software for High End
Computing, September 11, 2000
Transmittal Letter to the President
President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
September 11, 2000
Co-Chairs:
Raj Reddy
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Members:
Eric A. Benhamou
Vinton Cerf
Ching-chih ChenDavid Cooper
Steven D. Dorfman
David Dorman
Robert Ewald
Sherrilynne S. Fuller
Hector Garcia-Molina
Susan L. Graham
James N. Gray
W. Daniel Hillis
Robert E. Kahn
Ken Kennedy
John P. Miller
David C. Nagel
Edward H. Shortliffe
Larry Smarr
Joe F. Thompson
Leslie Vadasz
Andrew J. Viterbi
Steven J. Wallach

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) is very
pleased to submit the second report in the series of follow-ups to ourFebruary 1999 report to the President, Information Technology Research:
Investing in Our Future. Open Source Software for High End Computing
highlights our recommendations for a research strategy that uses open
source software development as the new model for answering America's
high end computing software needs.
In our February 1999 report, we noted with concern a growing national
vulnerability based on the inadequacies of the current system to build
reliable and secure software while the diversity and sophistication of thesoftware base becomes increasingly pervasive in society. The PITAC
believes the open source development model represents a viable strategy
for producing high quality software through a mixture of public, private, andacademic partnerships. This open source approach permits new software to
be openly shared, possibly under certain conditions determined by alicensing agreement, and allows users to modify, study, or augment thesoftware's functionality, and then redistribute the modified software undersimilar licensing restrictions. By its very nature, this approach offers
government the additional promise of leveraging its software research
investments with expertise in academia and the private sector.
In the attached report, we focus exclusively on software development forhigh end computing (sometimes referred to as high-performance computing
or supercomputing) because of its critical importance to U. S. national
security and science and engineering research. Our 1999 analysis revealed
that while there were a number of high end applications ripe forexploration, the field was in need of substantial innovations in applicationdevelopment software, algorithms, programming methods, component
technologies, and architecture.
The report makes three recommendations. First, the Federal government
should aggressively encourage the development of open source software forhigh end computing. Adopting this recommendation will require a technicalassessment of the software needs for high end computing as well as aninnovative management plan and funding model for supporting thisdevelopment. Second, a "level playing field" must be created within thegovernment procurement process to facilitate open source development.
Third, an analysis of open source licensing agreements is needed, with anultimate goal of agreeing upon a single common licensing agreement for
open source software applications.
Exploring alternative software development models for high end
applications will allow the Nation to make significant progress towards
addressing the growing national need to ensure software development
practices and techniques which will result in reliable and secure systems.
We are encouraged to see some high end computing and reliable softwaredevelopment research topics among the priorities in your proposed FY2001
budget for Information Technology Research and Development. However,
we urge you to implement the strategy outlined in our report in order tostrengthen the effectiveness of federal investments and policies in thisarena.
Thank you for the continued opportunity to advise you on these and otherimportant issues for America's information technology-driven economy.
Sincerely,
Raj Reddy, Ph.D.
PITAC, Co-Chair

Irving Wladawsky-Berger,
Ph.D.
PITAC, Co-Chair