Supercomputing: Key Issues and Challenges

In this treatise research issues related to high speed computing will be explored. Important elements of this topic include hardware, algorithms, software and their interrelationships. One quickly can observe that, as in the past, the nature of computing will change dramatically with technological developments. The continued growth in computer power/capacity, workstation capabilities, animation, and host of new technologies such as machine vision, natural language interfaces, can all have a great impact on research requirements and thrusts in scientific computing. To better appreciate what might be needed in future systems, one must explore those likely “drivers” of computation — important science that cannot be done or understood today because of limited computing technology. In this brief introduction, drivers of computation will be explored, and in subsequent sections, the research challenges they suggest will be elaborated.