Although the United States continues to be recognized as a world leader in science, our industries have increasingly been buffeted by global competition. Other nations, particularly Japan, have often been swifter than we in moving their own scientific and technological advances from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Supercomputing offers an opportunity for the United States to address these problems, using a homegrown technology in which we still maintain a lead. For example, circuit simulation that might take two months on a minicomputer can be done in about a day on a supercomputer. Such quick turnarounds can make the difference between whether work is done computationally or done through costly and lengthy prototyping and product testing.
Further improvements in cost and performance could make these powerful tools available to a wide range of industrial users, including even small and mid-size companies. Supercomputers available by the mid-1990s are expected to be at ...
