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Union Calendar No. 87 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 874 

[Report No. 114–122] 

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 

FEBRUARY 11, 2015 

Mr. HULTGREN (for himself, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. 

KINZINGER of Illinois, Mr. SWALWELL of California, and Mr. LIPINSKI) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology 

MAY 19, 2015 

Additional sponsors: Mr. BEN RAY LUJA ́N of New Mexico, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. 

ESTY, and Mr. PETERS

MAY 19, 2015 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 

and ordered to be printed 


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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. 


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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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 Section 2 of the Department of Energy High-End 

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

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

10 inserting the following: 

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

12 the joint development of application algorithms, 

13 models, and codes with computer technology archi14 tectures and operating systems to maximize effective 

15 use of high-end computing systems. 

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

17 means the Department of Energy. 

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

19 computing system performance at or near 10 to the 

20 18th power floating point operations per second. 

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

22 term ‘high-end computing system’ means a com23 puting system with performance that substantially 

24 exceeds that of systems that are commonly available 

25 for advanced scientific and engineering applications. 


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

2 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 

3 meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy 

4 Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801). 

5 ‘‘(6) LEADERSHIP SYSTEM.—The term ‘leader6 ship system’ means a high-end computing system 

7 that is among the most advanced in the world in 

8 terms of performance in solving scientific and engi9 neering problems. 

10 ‘‘(7) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘Na11 tional Laboratory’ means any one of the seventeen 

12 laboratories owned by the Department. 

13 ‘‘(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

14 the Secretary of Energy. 

15 ‘‘(9) SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY.—The term 

16 ‘software technology’ includes optimal algorithms, 

17 programming environments, tools, languages, and 

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

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

20 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 

21 Section 3 of the Department of Energy High-End 

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

23 is amended— 

24 (1) in subsection (a)— 


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1 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘pro2 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘coordinated program 

3 across the Department’’; 

4 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para5 graph (1); 

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

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

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

9 paragraph: 

10 ‘‘(3) partner with universities, National Labora11 tories, and industry to ensure the broadest possible 

12 application of the technology developed in this pro13 gram to other challenges in science, engineering, 

14 medicine, and industry.’’; 

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

16 and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’ and in17 serting ‘‘computer technologies that show promise of 

18 substantial reductions in power requirements and 

19 substantial gains in parallelism of multicore proc20 essors, concurrency, memory and storage, band21 width, and reliability’’; and 

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

23 following: 

24 ‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con2 duct a coordinated research program to develop 

3 exascale computing systems to advance the missions 

4 of the Department. 

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

6 through competitive merit review, establish two or 

7 more National Laboratory-industry-university part8 nerships to conduct integrated research, develop9 ment, and engineering of multiple exascale architec10 tures, and— 

11 ‘‘(A) conduct mission-related co-design ac12 tivities in developing such exascale platforms; 

13 ‘‘(B) develop those advancements in hard14 ware and software technology required to fully 

15 realize the potential of an exascale production 

16 system in addressing Department target appli17 cations and solving scientific problems involving 

18 predictive modeling and simulation and large19 scale data analytics and management; and 

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

21 technologies to advance a broad range of 

22 science and engineering. 

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

24 program, the Secretary shall— 


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1 ‘‘(A) provide, on a competitive, merit-re2 viewed basis, access for researchers in United 

3 States industry, institutions of higher edu4 cation, National Laboratories, and other Fed5 eral agencies to these exascale systems, as ap6 propriate; and 

7 ‘‘(B) conduct outreach programs to in8 crease the readiness for the use of such plat9 forms by domestic industries, including manu10 facturers. 

11 ‘‘(4) REPORTS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) INTEGRATED STRATEGY AND PRO13 GRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN.—The Secretary 

14 shall submit to Congress, not later than 90 

15 days after the date of enactment of the Amer16 ican Super Computing Leadership Act, a report 

17 outlining an integrated strategy and program 

18 management plan, including target dates for 

19 prototypical and production exascale platforms, 

20 interim milestones to reaching these targets, 

21 functional requirements, roles and responsibil22 ities of National Laboratories and industry, ac23 quisition strategy, and estimated resources re24 quired, to achieve this exascale system capa25 bility. The report shall include the Secretary’s 


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1 plan for Departmental organization to manage 

2 and execute the Exascale Computing Program, 

3 including definition of the roles and responsibil4 ities within the Department to ensure an inte5 grated program across the Department. The re6 port shall also include a plan for ensuring bal7 ance and prioritizing across ASCR subprograms 

8 in a flat or slow-growth budget environment. 

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

10 the budget submission of the Department for 

11 each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a 

12 report to Congress that describes the status of 

13 milestones and costs in achieving the objectives 

14 of the exascale computing program. 

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

16 18 months prior to the initiation of construction 

17 or installation of any exascale-class computing 

18 facility, the Secretary shall transmit a plan to 

19 the Congress detailing— 

20 ‘‘(i) the proposed facility’s cost projec21 tions and capabilities to significantly accel22 erate the development of new energy tech23 nologies; 

24 ‘‘(ii) technical risks and challenges 

25 that must be overcome to achieve successVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:22 May 20, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H874.RH H874

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1 ful completion and operation of the facility; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(iii) an independent assessment of 

4 the scientific and technological advances 

5 expected from such a facility relative to 

6 those expected from a comparable invest7 ment in expanded research and applica8 tions at terascale-class and petascale-class 

9 computing facilities, including an evalua10 tion of where investments should be made 

11 in the system software and algorithms to 

12 enable these advances.’’. 


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Union Calendar No. 87 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 874 

[Report No. 114–122] 

A BILL 

To amend the Department of Energy High-End 

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

MAY 19, 2015 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


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