A Center for Scientific and Engineering Supercomputing

Several orders of magnitude improvement in computer power is urgently needed in American universities. As a step toward that goal, we propose the creation of a Center for Scientific and Engineering Supercomputing at the University of Illinois. The Center is meant to be a model of a new type of dedicated basic research facility in which large-scale problems of heretofore intractable complexity, in a wide variety of disciplines, can be successfully attacked. The Center will provide a focal point for bringing together innovative scientists, engineers, computer designers, and algorithm developers. They will work in a fully equipped, well-balanced facility. The facility will be modeled on the highly successful ones at the national laboratories. The Center will serve selected University of Illinois research programs and the national community. The majority of the time will be allocated by an external program committee. Excellence, as determined by peer review will be the criterion for determining access to the Center. The interaction of these talented users, combined with unprecedented amounts of computational resources per investigator, should lead to major advances in a number of frontier research areas.