Supercomputing
My experience in the 1970s and early 1980s using supercomputers at Department of Energy labs and European centers convinced me that the National Science Foundation (NSF) needed to make this capability widely available to university researchers. My unsolicited NSF proposal in 1983 helped define the need for what became the NSF Supercomputer Center program. In 1985 my proposal was funded and I became the founding director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1997 the NSF expanded the program and I became the founding director of the National Computational Science Alliance, comprised of more than 50 universities, government labs, and corporations linked with NCSA to prototype the information infrastructure of the 21st century. I oversaw bringing successive generations of high-performance computers to the national research community, first with vectors [Cray X-MP, Cray Y-MP, Convex], then massively parallel [Alliant, CM-2, CM-5], shared memory [SGI Challenge, Power Challenge, Origin], and finally large-scale superclusters. Based on these experiences, I co-authored a book on the scientific underpinnings of the many disciplines of science and engineering that were being transformed by this computational methodology. In the late 1990s NIH director Varmus asked me to develop a report on the future impact of IT and telecom on biomedical research. This report is still being used today to launch new NIH centers.
Supercomputers: Directions In Technology, Architecture, And Applications
Larry Smarr, in Proceedings of Supercomputing '98 in Mannheim, Germany (1998).
Supercomputing And The Transformation Of Science
William J. Kaufmann III, Larry L. Smarr. Scientific American Library, W. H. Freeman and Company, ISSN 1040-3213. (1993).
Extraterrestrial Computing: Exploring The Universe With A Supercomputer
Chapter 8 of the book Very large Scale Computation in the 21st Century, edited by Jill P. Mesirov for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), (1991).
Supercomputing Opportunities For The Protein Sciences
In Protein Folding: Deciphering the Second Half of the Genetic Code, eds. L. M. Gierasch and J. King (AAAS: Washington D.C., 1990).
Supercomputing And Numerical Relativity: A Look At The Past, Present, and Future
In Frontiers in Numerical Relativity, 1-17, 1989, ed. C. Evans, L. Finn, and D. Hobill (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge), with D. Hobill.
Supercomputers, Workstations, And Visualization
In NCAR-41 Proceedings 1988, (Pechnomic Publishing Co., Inc.: Lancaster, PA). (1989).
The Computational Science Revolution: Technology, Methodology and Sociology
In High-Speed Computing: Scientific Applications and Algorithm Design, ed. R. B. Wilhelmson (Univ. of Illinois Press: Urbana). (1988).
An Approach to Complexity: Numerical Computations – Science Magazine
L. Smarr, Science Vol. 228, Issue 4698, pp. 403-408. (1985).
The Supercomputer Famine in American Universities
In The Report of the Panel on Large Scale Computing in Science and Engineering, P. D. Lax, Chairman. (1982).
Homecoming – NCSA
Larry Smarr, NCSA’s founder, recently came home to NCSA to give a talk on his journey from founding the Center to his work with the National Research Platform (NRP). Smarr was on campus to accept an honorary Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) during this year’s commencement.
NCSA Welcomes Back Larry Smarr to Share Insights on Nationwide Cyberinfrastructure Development – HPC Wire
May 3, 2024 — High-Performance Computing (HPC) luminary and NCSA founding director Larry Smarr will be returning to the Center to give a talk titled “From NCSA to the National Research Platform” on May 9 at 12 p.m. in the NCSA auditorium on the first floor.
ENIAC at 75: Celebrating the World’s First Supercomputer – HPC Wire
With little fanfare, today’s computer revolution was arguably born and announced through a small, innocuous, two-column story at the bottom of the front page of The New York Times on Feb. 15, 1946.Larry Smarr: A U.S. Academic Supercomputing Program is Born
I had been using supercomputers since the early-mid 1970s but to do so I had to get a top secret nuclear clearance.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Reflections on the NSF Supercomputer Center Program – HPC Wire
In a position paper for community input at NSF’s Future of High Performance Computing Workshop in early December, Calit2 Director Larry Smarr reviewed the successes, failures and continuing challenges of the NSF supercomputing program that he helped create.
He sees IT coming – Mizzou Alumni Magazine
For decades, Larry Smarr has helped shape information technology that has given us the Internet, special effects for blockbuster movies and more.
Social Scientists Pass Up Free Supercomputer Time – HPC Wire
September 11, 1998 - Social-science projects accounted for less than 1 per cent of the research last year at supercomputers financed by the National Science Foundation, says Larry Smarr, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
JP Morgan Analyzes Risk Management on NCSA Origin2000 – HPC Wire
Champaign, IL — J.P. Morgan recently extended its risk management capabilities through the application of new mathematical models and advanced technology, JP Morgan and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) announced.
Alliance led by NCSA becomes a reality – HPC Wire
An alliance of researchers, industry, and educational leaders, linking more than 50 research partners across the country and led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) becomes a reality October 1.
HPC in 1996 and 1997: An interview with Larry Smarr – HPC Wire
January 10, 1997 - Urbana-Champaign, Ill. -- To further understanding of significant trends in high-performance computing at the juncture of a new year, HPCwire interviewed Larry Smarr, director of NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) about his view of the most important developments that have taken place in the industry during 1996 and those which might be anticipated in the 12 months ahead.