Such an approach has limited the use of these systems to few specialized organizations. However, the application areas of supercomputing are growing rapidly. Applications such as computational biology and nanotechnology researching first principles molecular dynamics are characterized by their need for almost unlimited high performance computing needs. To allow such applications to become widely available multi Teraflops computing machine must be within the power and physical size limits of moderate machine room installation, be easily programmable and offer price performance ratio in line with commodity PC levels. For such practical supercomputing, radical rethink is required.

Present supercomputers that provide computational resource measured in the tens of Teraflopss 10,000 processors are presently quoted in Mega Watts and in football field sized dimensions. Computational simulation is playing an increasingly important role in basic science, both in accelerating and substituting for physical experimentation and also for prediction where physical experimentation is difficult, costly or impracticable. Such an approach has limited the use of these systems to few specialized organizations. However, the application areas of supercomputing are growing rapidly. Digital content creation is growing significantly with the realization of HDTV. For such practical supercomputing, radical rethink is required. Is this possible?

Applications such as computational biology and nanotechnology researching first principles molecular dynamics are characterized by their need for almost unlimited high performance computing needs. To allow such applications to become widely available multi Teraflops computing machine must be within the power and physical size limits of moderate machine room installation, be easily programmable and offer price performance ratio in line with commodity PC levels. Link Traditionally, supercomputing has had to focus on performance at the expense of other issues such as power consumption, space requirements and of ownership.

The floor will then be opened for an informal discussion on this topic.. For such practical supercomputing, radical rethink is required. Is this possible? Can we really achieve the goal of affordable, low power TeraFlops? Is there market? Who will drive it? Can HPC become pervasive and in the hands of the masses? The objective of this session is to bring together parties interested in discussing the requirements and challenges for more practical approach to supercomputing. Such an approach has limited the use of these systems to few specialized organizations. However, the application areas of supercomputing are growing rapidly.