I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 874 

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 

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 2 of the Energy 

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

25 ‘‘(6) LEADERSHIP SYSTEM.—The term ‘leader26 ship system’ means a high-end computing system 


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1 that is among the most advanced in the world in 

2 terms of performance in solving scientific and engi3 neering problems. 

4 ‘‘(7) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘Na5 tional Laboratory’ means any one of the seventeen 

6 laboratories owned by the Department. 

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

8 the Secretary of Energy. 

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

10 ‘software technology’ includes optimal algorithms, 

11 programming environments, tools, languages, and 

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

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

14 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 

15 Section 3 of the Department of Energy High-End 

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

17 is amended— 

18 (1) in subsection (a)— 

19 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘pro20 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘coordinated program 

21 across the Department’’; 

22 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para23 graph (1); 

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

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


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

2 paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(3) partner with universities, National Labora4 tories, and industry to ensure the broadest possible 

5 application of the technology developed in this pro6 gram to other challenges in science, engineering, 

7 medicine, and industry.’’; 

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

9 and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’ and in10 serting ‘‘computer technologies that show promise of 

11 substantial reductions in power requirements and 

12 substantial gains in parallelism of multicore proc13 essors, concurrency, memory and storage, band14 width, and reliability’’; and 

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

16 following: 

17 ‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con19 duct a coordinated research program to develop 

20 exascale computing systems to advance the missions 

21 of the Department. 

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

23 through competitive merit review, establish two or 

24 more National Laboratory-industry-university part25 nerships to conduct integrated research, developVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:51 Feb 19, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H874.IH H874

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1 ment, and engineering of multiple exascale architec2 tures, and— 

3 ‘‘(A) conduct mission-related co-design ac4 tivities in developing such exascale platforms; 

5 ‘‘(B) develop those advancements in hard6 ware and software technology required to fully 

7 realize the potential of an exascale production 

8 system in addressing Department target appli9 cations and solving scientific problems involving 

10 predictive modeling and simulation and large11 scale data analytics and management; and 

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

13 technologies to advance a broad range of 

14 science and engineering. 

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

16 program, the Secretary shall— 

17 ‘‘(A) provide, on a competitive, merit-re18 viewed basis, access for researchers in United 

19 States industry, institutions of higher edu20 cation, National Laboratories, and other Fed21 eral agencies to these exascale systems, as ap22 propriate; and 

23 ‘‘(B) conduct outreach programs to in24 crease the readiness for the use of such platVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:51 Feb 19, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H874.IH H874

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1 forms by domestic industries, including manu2 facturers. 

3 ‘‘(4) REPORTS.— 

4 ‘‘(A) INTEGRATED STRATEGY AND PRO5 GRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN.—The Secretary 

6 shall submit to Congress, not later than 90 

7 days after the date of enactment of the Amer8 ican Super Computing Leadership Act, a report 

9 outlining an integrated strategy and program 

10 management plan, including target dates for 

11 prototypical and production exascale platforms, 

12 interim milestones to reaching these targets, 

13 functional requirements, roles and responsibil14 ities of National Laboratories and industry, ac15 quisition strategy, and estimated resources re16 quired, to achieve this exascale system capa17 bility. The report shall include the Secretary’s 

18 plan for Departmental organization to manage 

19 and execute the Exascale Computing Program, 

20 including definition of the roles and responsibil21 ities within the Department to ensure an inte22 grated program across the Department. The re23 port shall also include a plan for ensuring bal24 ance and prioritizing across ASCR subprograms 

25 in a flat or slow-growth budget environment. 


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

2 the budget submission of the Department for 

3 each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a 

4 report to Congress that describes the status of 

5 milestones and costs in achieving the objectives 

6 of the exascale computing program. 

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

8 18 months prior to the initiation of construction 

9 or installation of any exascale-class computing 

10 facility, the Secretary shall transmit a plan to 

11 the Congress detailing— 

12 ‘‘(i) the proposed facility’s cost projec13 tions and capabilities to significantly accel14 erate the development of new energy tech15 nologies; 

16 ‘‘(ii) technical risks and challenges 

17 that must be overcome to achieve success18 ful completion and operation of the facility; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(iii) an independent assessment of 

21 the scientific and technological advances 

22 expected from such a facility relative to 

23 those expected from a comparable invest24 ment in expanded research and applica25 tions at terascale-class and petascale-class 


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1 computing facilities, including an evalua2 tion of where investments should be made 

3 in the system software and algorithms to 

4 enable these advances.’’. 

Æ 


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