I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2495 

To amend the Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization 

Act of 2004 to improve the high-end computing research and development 

program of the Department of Energy, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 25, 2013 

Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Ms. MCCOLLUM, 

Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. FATTAH, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. 

FLEISCHMANN, Mr. ADERHOLT, and Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, 

Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To amend the Department of Energy High-End Computing 

Revitalization Act of 2004 to improve the high-end computing research and development program of the Department of Energy, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Super Com5 puting Leadership Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 Section 2 of the Department of Energy High-End 

3 Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (15 U.S.C. 5541) 

4 is amended by striking paragraphs (1) through (5) and 

5 inserting the following: 

6 ‘‘(1) CO-DESIGN.—The term ‘co-design’ means 

7 the joint development of application algorithms, 

8 models, and codes with computer technology archi9 tectures and operating systems to maximize effective 

10 use of high-end computing systems. 

11 ‘‘(2) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘Department’ 

12 means the Department of Energy. 

13 ‘‘(3) EXASCALE.—The term ‘exascale’ means 

14 computing system performance at or near 10 to the 

15 18th power floating point operations per second. 

16 ‘‘(4) HIGH-END COMPUTING SYSTEM.—The 

17 term ‘high-end computing system’ means a com18 puting system with performance that substantially 

19 exceeds that of systems that are commonly available 

20 for advanced scientific and engineering applications. 

21 ‘‘(5) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.— 

22 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 

23 meaning given the term in section 101(a) of the 

24 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)). 


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1 ‘‘(6) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘Na2 tional Laboratory’ means any one of the seventeen 

3 laboratories owned by the Department. 

4 ‘‘(7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

5 the Secretary of Energy. 

6 ‘‘(8) SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY.—The term 

7 ‘software technology’ includes optimal algorithms, 

8 programming environments, tools, languages, and 

9 operating systems for high-end computing systems.’’. 

10 SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-END COMPUTING 

11 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 

12 Section 3 of the Department of Energy High-End 

13 Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (15 U.S.C. 5542) 

14 is amended— 

15 (1) in subsection (a)— 

16 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘pro17 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘coordinated program 

18 across the Department’’; 

19 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para20 graph (1); 

21 (C) by striking the period at the end of 

22 paragraph (2) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

23 (D) by adding at the end the following new 

24 paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(3) partner with universities, National Labora2 tories, and industry to ensure the broadest possible 

3 application of the technology developed in this pro4 gram to other challenges in science, engineering, 

5 medicine, and industry.’’; 

6 (2) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘vector’’ 

7 and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’ and in8 serting ‘‘computer technologies that show promise of 

9 substantial reductions in power requirements and 

10 substantial gains in parallelism of multicore proc11 essors, concurrency, memory and storage, band12 width, and reliability’’; and 

13 (3) by striking subsection (d) and inserting the 

14 following: 

15 ‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con17 duct a coordinated research program to develop 

18 exascale computing systems to advance the missions 

19 of the Department. 

20 ‘‘(2) EXECUTION.—The Secretary shall, 

21 through competitive merit review, establish two or 

22 more National Laboratory-industry-university part23 nerships to conduct integrated research, develop24 ment, and engineering of multiple exascale architec25 tures, and— 


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1 ‘‘(A) conduct mission-related co-design ac2 tivities in developing such exascale platforms; 

3 ‘‘(B) develop those advancements in hard4 ware and software technology required to fully 

5 realize the potential of an exascale production 

6 system in addressing Department target appli7 cations and solving scientific problems involving 

8 predictive modeling and simulation and large9 scale data analytics and management; and 

10 ‘‘(C) explore the use of exascale computing 

11 technologies to advance a broad range of 

12 science and engineering. 

13 ‘‘(3) ADMINISTRATION.—In carrying out this 

14 program, the Secretary shall— 

15 ‘‘(A) provide, on a competitive, merit-re16 viewed basis, access for researchers in United 

17 States industry, institutions of higher edu18 cation, National Laboratories, and other Fed19 eral agencies to these exascale systems, as ap20 propriate; and 

21 ‘‘(B) conduct outreach programs to in22 crease the readiness for the use of such plat23 forms by domestic industries, including manu24 facturers. 

25 ‘‘(4) REPORTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) INTEGRATED STRATEGY AND PRO2 GRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN.—The Secretary 

3 shall submit to Congress, not later than 90 

4 days after the date of enactment of the Amer5 ican Super Computing Leadership Act, a report 

6 outlining an integrated strategy and program 

7 management plan, including target dates for 

8 prototypical and production exascale platforms, 

9 interim milestones to reaching these targets, 

10 functional requirements, roles and responsibil11 ities of National Laboratories and industry, ac12 quisition strategy, and estimated resources re13 quired, to achieve this exascale system capa14 bility. The report shall include the Secretary’s 

15 plan for Departmental organization to manage 

16 and execute the Exascale Computing Program, 

17 including definition of the roles and responsibil18 ities within the Department to ensure an inte19 grated program across the Department. The re20 port shall also include a plan for ensuring bal21 ance and prioritizing across ASCR subprograms 

22 in a flat or slow-growth budget environment. 

23 ‘‘(B) STATUS REPORTS.—At the time of 

24 the budget submission of the Department for 

25 each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a 


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1 report to Congress that describes the status of 

2 milestones and costs in achieving the objectives 

3 of the exascale computing program. 

4 ‘‘(C) EXASCALE MERIT REPORT.—At least 

5 18 months prior to the initiation of construction 

6 or installation of any exascale-class computing 

7 facility, the Secretary shall transmit a plan to 

8 the Congress detailing— 

9 ‘‘(i) the proposed facility’s cost projec10 tions and capabilities to significantly accel11 erate the development of new energy tech12 nologies; 

13 ‘‘(ii) technical risks and challenges 

14 that must be overcome to achieve success15 ful completion and operation of the facility; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(iii) an independent assessment of 

18 the scientific and technological advances 

19 expected from such a facility relative to 

20 those expected from a comparable invest21 ment in expanded research and applica22 tions at terascale-class and petascale-class 

23 computing facilities, including an evalua24 tion of where investments should be made 


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1 in the system software and algorithms to 

2 enable these advances.’’. 

Æ 


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