II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 454 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 11, 2015 

Mr. ALEXANDER (for himself and Ms. BALDWIN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

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 ‘‘Exascale Computing 

5 for Science, Competitiveness, Advanced Manufacturing, 

6 Leadership, and the Economy Act of 2015’’ or the 

7 ‘‘ExaSCALE Computing Leadership Act of 2015’’. 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 454 IS

1 SEC. 2. RENAMING OF ACT. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1 of the Department of 

3 Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 

4 (15 U.S.C. 5501 note; Public Law 108–423) is amended 

5 by striking ‘‘Department of Energy High-End Computing 

6 Revitalization Act of 2004’’ and inserting ‘‘Exascale Com7 puting for Science, Competitiveness, Advanced Manufac8 turing, Leadership, and the Economy Act of 2015’’. 

9 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 976(a)(1) 

10 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16316(1)) 

11 is amended by striking ‘‘Department of Energy High-End 

12 Computing Revitalization Act of 2004’’ and inserting 

13 ‘‘Exascale Computing for Science, Competitiveness, Ad14 vanced Manufacturing, Leadership, and the Economy Act 

15 of 2015’’. 

16 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

17 Section 2 of the Exascale Computing for Science, 

18 Competitiveness, Advanced Manufacturing, Leadership, 

19 and the Economy Act of 2015 (15 U.S.C. 5541) is amend20 ed— 

21 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through 

22 (5) as paragraphs (3) through (6), respectively; 

23 (2) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 

24 following: 

25 ‘‘(1) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘Department’ 

26 means the Department of Energy. 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 454 IS

1 ‘‘(2) EXASCALE COMPUTING.—The term 

2 ‘exascale computing’ means computing through the 

3 use of a computing machine that performs near or 

4 above 10 to the 18th power floating point operations 

5 per second.’’; and 

6 (3) in paragraph (6) (as redesignated by para7 graph (1)), by striking ‘‘, acting through the Direc8 tor of the Office of Science of the Department of 

9 Energy’’. 

10 SEC. 4. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-END COMPUTING 

11 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 

12 Section 3 of the Exascale Computing for Science, 

13 Competitiveness, Advanced Manufacturing, Leadership, 

14 and the Economy Act of 2015 (15 U.S.C. 5542) is amend15 ed— 

16 (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘program’’ 

17 and inserting ‘‘coordinated program across the De18 partment’’; 

19 (2) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘, which 

20 may’’ and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’; 

21 and 

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

23 following: 

24 ‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 454 IS

1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con2 duct a research program (referred to in this sub3 section as the ‘Program’) to develop 2 or more 

4 exascale computing machine architectures to pro5 mote the missions of the Department. 

6 ‘‘(2) IMPLEMENTATION.— 

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the 

8 Program, the Secretary shall— 

9 ‘‘(i) establish 2 or more National Lab10 oratory partnerships with industry part11 ners and institutions of higher education 

12 for the research and development of 2 or 

13 more exascale computing systems across all 

14 applicable organizations of the Depart15 ment; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) provide, as appropriate, on a 

17 competitive, merit-reviewed basis, access 

18 for researchers in industries in the United 

19 States, institutions of higher education, 

20 National Laboratories, and other Federal 

21 agencies to the exascale computing systems 

22 developed pursuant to clause (i). 

23 ‘‘(B) SELECTION OF PARTNERS.—The Sec24 retary shall select members for the partnerships 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•S 454 IS

1 under subparagraph (A) through a competitive, 

2 peer-review process. 

3 ‘‘(3) CODESIGN AND APPLICATION DEVELOP4 MENT.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

6 carry out the Program through an integration 

7 of application, computer science, and computer 

8 hardware architecture using the partnerships 

9 established pursuant to paragraph (2) to ensure 

10 that, to the maximum extent practicable, 2 or 

11 more exascale computing machine architectures 

12 are capable of solving Department target appli13 cations and broader scientific problems. 

14 ‘‘(B) REPORT.—The Secretary shall sub15 mit to Congress a report on how the integration 

16 under subparagraph (A) is furthering applica17 tion science data and computational workloads 

18 across application interests, including national 

19 security, material science, physical science, 

20 cyber security, biological science, the Materials 

21 Genome and BRAIN Initiatives of the Presi22 dent, advanced manufacturing, and the national 

23 electric grid. 

24 ‘‘(4) PROJECT REVIEW.— 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•S 454 IS

1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The exascale architec2 tures systems developed pursuant to partner3 ships established pursuant to paragraph (2) 

4 shall be reviewed through a project review proc5 ess. 

6 ‘‘(B) REPORT.—Not later than 90 days 

7 after the date of enactment of this subsection, 

8 the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 

9 on— 

10 ‘‘(i) the results of the review con11 ducted under subparagraph (A); and 

12 ‘‘(ii) the coordination and manage13 ment of the Program to ensure an inte14 grated research program across the De15 partment. 

16 ‘‘(5) ANNUAL REPORTS.—At the time of the 

17 budget submission of the Department for each fiscal 

18 year, the Secretary, in consultation with the mem19 bers of the partnerships established pursuant to 

20 paragraph (2), shall submit to Congress a report 

21 that describes funding for the Program as a whole 

22 by functional element of the Department and critical 

23 milestones.’’. 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•S 454 IS

1 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 Section 4 of the Exascale Computing for Science, 

3 Competitiveness, Advanced Manufacturing, Leadership, 

4 and the Economy Act of 2015 (15 U.S.C. 5543) is amend5 ed— 

6 (1) by striking ‘‘this Act’’ and inserting ‘‘sec7 tion 3(d)’’; and 

8 (2) by striking paragraphs (1) through (3) and 

9 inserting the following: 

10 ‘‘(1) $272,000,000 for fiscal year 2016; 

11 ‘‘(2) $340,000,000 for fiscal year 2017; and 

12 ‘‘(3) $360,000,000 for fiscal year 2018.’’. 

Æ 


emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS