IIB 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 874 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 20, 2015 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Super Com3 puting Leadership Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

5 Section 2 of the Department of Energy High-End 

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

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

8 inserting the following: 

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

10 the joint development of application algorithms, 

11 models, and codes with computer technology archi12 tectures and operating systems to maximize effective 

13 use of high-end computing systems. 

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

15 means the Department of Energy. 

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

17 computing system performance at or near 10 to the 

18 18th power floating point operations per second. 

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

20 term ‘high-end computing system’ means a com21 puting system with performance that substantially 

22 exceeds that of systems that are commonly available 

23 for advanced scientific and engineering applications. 

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

25 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 


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1 meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy 

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

3 ‘‘(6) LEADERSHIP SYSTEM.—The term ‘leader4 ship system’ means a high-end computing system 

5 that is among the most advanced in the world in 

6 terms of performance in solving scientific and engi7 neering problems. 

8 ‘‘(7) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘Na9 tional Laboratory’ means any one of the seventeen 

10 laboratories owned by the Department. 

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

12 the Secretary of Energy. 

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

14 ‘software technology’ includes optimal algorithms, 

15 programming environments, tools, languages, and 

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

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

18 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 

19 Section 3 of the Department of Energy High-End 

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

21 is amended— 

22 (1) in subsection (a)— 

23 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘pro24 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘coordinated program 

25 across the Department’’; 


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1 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para2 graph (1); 

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

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

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

6 paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(3) partner with universities, National Labora8 tories, and industry to ensure the broadest possible 

9 application of the technology developed in this pro10 gram to other challenges in science, engineering, 

11 medicine, and industry.’’; 

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

13 and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’ and in14 serting ‘‘computer technologies that show promise of 

15 substantial reductions in power requirements and 

16 substantial gains in parallelism of multicore proc17 essors, concurrency, memory and storage, band18 width, and reliability’’; and 

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

20 following: 

21 ‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con23 duct a coordinated research program to develop 

24 exascale computing systems to advance the missions 

25 of the Department. 


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

2 through competitive merit review, establish two or 

3 more National Laboratory-industry-university part4 nerships to conduct integrated research, develop5 ment, and engineering of multiple exascale architec6 tures, and— 

7 ‘‘(A) conduct mission-related co-design ac8 tivities in developing such exascale platforms; 

9 ‘‘(B) develop those advancements in hard10 ware and software technology required to fully 

11 realize the potential of an exascale production 

12 system in addressing Department target appli13 cations and solving scientific problems involving 

14 predictive modeling and simulation and large15 scale data analytics and management; and 

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

17 technologies to advance a broad range of 

18 science and engineering. 

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

20 program, the Secretary shall— 

21 ‘‘(A) provide, on a competitive, merit-re22 viewed basis, access for researchers in United 

23 States industry, institutions of higher edu24 cation, National Laboratories, and other FedVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 May 21, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H874.RFS H874

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1 eral agencies to these exascale systems, as ap2 propriate; and 

3 ‘‘(B) conduct outreach programs to in4 crease the readiness for the use of such plat5 forms by domestic industries, including manu6 facturers. 

7 ‘‘(4) REPORTS.— 

8 ‘‘(A) INTEGRATED STRATEGY AND PRO9 GRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN.—The Secretary 

10 shall submit to Congress, not later than 90 

11 days after the date of enactment of the Amer12 ican Super Computing Leadership Act, a report 

13 outlining an integrated strategy and program 

14 management plan, including target dates for 

15 prototypical and production exascale platforms, 

16 interim milestones to reaching these targets, 

17 functional requirements, roles and responsibil18 ities of National Laboratories and industry, ac19 quisition strategy, and estimated resources re20 quired, to achieve this exascale system capa21 bility. The report shall include the Secretary’s 

22 plan for Departmental organization to manage 

23 and execute the Exascale Computing Program, 

24 including definition of the roles and responsibil25 ities within the Department to ensure an inteVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 May 21, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H874.RFS H874

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1 grated program across the Department. The re2 port shall also include a plan for ensuring bal3 ance and prioritizing across ASCR subprograms 

4 in a flat or slow-growth budget environment. 

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

6 the budget submission of the Department for 

7 each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a 

8 report to Congress that describes the status of 

9 milestones and costs in achieving the objectives 

10 of the exascale computing program. 

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

12 18 months prior to the initiation of construction 

13 or installation of any exascale-class computing 

14 facility, the Secretary shall transmit a plan to 

15 the Congress detailing— 

16 ‘‘(i) the proposed facility’s cost projec17 tions and capabilities to significantly accel18 erate the development of new energy tech19 nologies; 

20 ‘‘(ii) technical risks and challenges 

21 that must be overcome to achieve success22 ful completion and operation of the facility; 

23 and 

24 ‘‘(iii) an independent assessment of 

25 the scientific and technological advances 


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1 expected from such a facility relative to 

2 those expected from a comparable invest3 ment in expanded research and applica4 tions at terascale-class and petascale-class 

5 computing facilities, including an evalua6 tion of where investments should be made 

7 in the system software and algorithms to 

8 enable these advances.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives May 19, 2015. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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