IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1498 

To honor the visionary and extraordinary work of Los Alamos National 

Laboratory and IBM on the Roadrunner supercomputer. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008 

Mr. WELCH of Vermont submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee 

on Science and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined 

by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 

within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

To honor the visionary and extraordinary work of Los Alamos National Laboratory and IBM on the Roadrunner 

supercomputer. 

Whereas on May 26, 2008, the Roadrunner supercomputer of 

the Los Alamos National Laboratory broke a historic 

barrier by being powerful enough to run at a petaflop, 

1,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second, making 

the Roadrunner supercomputer the fastest computer in 

the world; 

Whereas International Business Machines Corporation (referred to in this resolution as ‘‘IBM’’) and Los Alamos 

National Laboratory overcame the challenges of technological innovation to achieve a petaflop ahead of schedule; 


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•HRES 1498 IH 

Whereas the Roadrunner supercomputer will enable the 

United States to tackle new and more challenging problems; 

Whereas the Roadrunner supercomputer will be primarily devoted to national security in the United States and will 

be used for ensuring the safety and reliability of the 

weapons stockpile of the United States and for research 

in astrophysics, materials science, energy research, medicine, and biotechnology; 

Whereas Cell-based supercomputer technology of IBM is the 

most energy efficient in the world; 

Whereas the new high-performance computing capabilities enabled by hybrid Opteron-Cell machines of IBM in the 

Roadrunner supercomputer of Los Alamos National Laboratory enhance and improve United States competitiveness; 

Whereas from maintaining employment records for millions 

of people in the United States, to providing technology to 

help the United States run the Ballistic Missile Early 

Warning System, land on Mars, end the physical testing 

of atomic weapons, and now help national security by ensuring the safety of the nuclear weapons stockpile of the 

United States and researching issues of critical importance such as human genome science and climate change, 

the partnership of IBM with the Federal Government 

and the dedication of that partnership to solving critical 

problems that are seemingly impossible have remained 

unrivaled and relentless for more than 80 years; 

Whereas the Roadrunner supercomputer is the most recent 

achievement of the long-standing science and technology 

leadership of Los Alamos National Laboratory, from the 


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Manhattan Project to the role of the Laboratory today as 

a premier national security science laboratory; and 

Whereas, the Roadrunner supercomputer funding was initiated with $35,000,000 in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109–103): 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors 

2 the visionary and extraordinary work of Los Alamos Na3 tional Laboratory and IBM for— 

4 (1) pushing the barriers of science and pro5 viding the United States with historical high-per6 formance computing capabilities that will allow some 

7 of the most challenging problems in science and en8 gineering to be solved; and 

9 (2) achieving the capability to make petaflop 

10 calculations, which— 

11 (A) is considered a crucial milestone inter12 nationally; 

13 (B) is considered a sign of the competitive14 ness of the United States in the critical new 

15 area of high-performance computing capability; 

16 and 

17 (C) will allow the United States to solve 

18 even bigger and more complex problems from 

19 the safety of the nuclear deterrent of the 


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1 United States to human genome science and cli2 mate change. 

Æ 


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