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 com-
puting research and development program of the Depart-
ment of Energy, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Super Com-
puting Leadership Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
Section 2 of the Department of Energy High-End 
Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (15 U.S.C. 5541) 
is amended by striking paragraphs (1) through (5) and 
inserting the following: 
‘‘(1) CO-DESIGN.—The term ‘co-design’ means 
the joint development of application algorithms, 
models, and codes with computer technology archi-
tectures and operating systems to maximize effective 
use of high-end computing systems. 
‘‘(2) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘Department’ 
means the Department of Energy. 
‘‘(3) EXASCALE.—The term ‘exascale’ means 
computing system performance at or near 10 to the 
18th power floating point operations per second. 
‘‘(4) HIGH-END
COMPUTING
SYSTEM.—The 
term ‘high-end computing system’ means a com-
puting system with performance that substantially 
exceeds that of systems that are commonly available 
for advanced scientific and engineering applications. 
‘‘(5) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.— 
The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 
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meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy 
Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801). 
‘‘(6) LEADERSHIP SYSTEM.—The term ‘leader-
ship system’ means a high-end computing system 
that is among the most advanced in the world in 
terms of performance in solving scientific and engi-
neering problems. 
‘‘(7) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘Na-
tional Laboratory’ means any one of the seventeen 
laboratories owned by the Department. 
‘‘(8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 
the Secretary of Energy. 
‘‘(9) 
SOFTWARE
TECHNOLOGY.—The 
term 
‘software technology’ includes optimal algorithms, 
programming environments, tools, languages, and 
operating systems for high-end computing systems.’’. 
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HIGH-END COMPUTING 
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. 
Section 3 of the Department of Energy High-End 
Computing Revitalization Act of 2004 (15 U.S.C. 5542) 
is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)— 
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘pro-
gram’’ and inserting ‘‘coordinated program 
across the Department’’; 
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(B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (1); 
(C) by striking the period at the end of 
paragraph (2) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(D) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(3) partner with universities, National Labora-
tories, and industry to ensure the broadest possible 
application of the technology developed in this pro-
gram to other challenges in science, engineering, 
medicine, and industry.’’; 
(2) in subsection (b)(2), by striking ‘‘vector’’ 
and all that follows through ‘‘architectures’’ and in-
serting ‘‘computer technologies that show promise of 
substantial reductions in power requirements and 
substantial gains in parallelism of multicore proc-
essors, concurrency, memory and storage, band-
width, and reliability’’; and 
(3) by striking subsection (d) and inserting the 
following: 
‘‘(d) EXASCALE COMPUTING PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con-
duct a coordinated research program to develop 
exascale computing systems to advance the missions 
of the Department. 
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‘‘(2) 
EXECUTION.—The 
Secretary 
shall, 
through competitive merit review, establish two or 
more National Laboratory-industry-university part-
nerships to conduct integrated research, develop-
ment, and engineering of multiple exascale architec-
tures, and— 
‘‘(A) conduct mission-related co-design ac-
tivities in developing such exascale platforms; 
‘‘(B) develop those advancements in hard-
ware and software technology required to fully 
realize the potential of an exascale production 
system in addressing Department target appli-
cations and solving scientific problems involving 
predictive modeling and simulation and large- 
scale data analytics and management; and 
‘‘(C) explore the use of exascale computing 
technologies to advance a broad range of 
science and engineering. 
‘‘(3) ADMINISTRATION.—In carrying out this 
program, the Secretary shall— 
‘‘(A) provide, on a competitive, merit-re-
viewed basis, access for researchers in United 
States industry, institutions of higher edu-
cation, National Laboratories, and other Fed-
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eral agencies to these exascale systems, as ap-
propriate; and 
‘‘(B) conduct outreach programs to in-
crease the readiness for the use of such plat-
forms by domestic industries, including manu-
facturers. 
‘‘(4) REPORTS.— 
‘‘(A) INTEGRATED
STRATEGY
AND
PRO-
GRAM
MANAGEMENT
PLAN.—The Secretary 
shall submit to Congress, not later than 90 
days after the date of enactment of the Amer-
ican Super Computing Leadership Act, a report 
outlining an integrated strategy and program 
management plan, including target dates for 
prototypical and production exascale platforms, 
interim milestones to reaching these targets, 
functional requirements, roles and responsibil-
ities of National Laboratories and industry, ac-
quisition strategy, and estimated resources re-
quired, to achieve this exascale system capa-
bility. The report shall include the Secretary’s 
plan for Departmental organization to manage 
and execute the Exascale Computing Program, 
including definition of the roles and responsibil-
ities within the Department to ensure an inte-
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grated program across the Department. The re-
port shall also include a plan for ensuring bal-
ance and prioritizing across ASCR subprograms 
in a flat or slow-growth budget environment. 
‘‘(B) STATUS REPORTS.—At the time of 
the budget submission of the Department for 
each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit a 
report to Congress that describes the status of 
milestones and costs in achieving the objectives 
of the exascale computing program. 
‘‘(C) EXASCALE MERIT REPORT.—At least 
18 months prior to the initiation of construction 
or installation of any exascale-class computing 
facility, the Secretary shall transmit a plan to 
the Congress detailing— 
‘‘(i) the proposed facility’s cost projec-
tions and capabilities to significantly accel-
erate the development of new energy tech-
nologies; 
‘‘(ii) technical risks and challenges 
that must be overcome to achieve success-
ful completion and operation of the facility; 
and 
‘‘(iii) an independent assessment of 
the scientific and technological advances 
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expected from such a facility relative to 
those expected from a comparable invest-
ment in expanded research and applica-
tions at terascale-class and petascale-class 
computing facilities, including an evalua-
tion of where investments should be made 
in the system software and algorithms to 
enable these advances.’’. 
Passed the House of Representatives May 19, 2015. 
Attest: 
KAREN L. HAAS, 
Clerk. 
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