ip: supercomputer & more budget requests

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Fri, 8 Sep 1995 11:24:03 -0600
From: mdunn@lanl.gov (Mark E. Dunn)


Dear Fukuzawans:  Here is an update to my "various topics of interest" post
of last Friday.  Mark


1) The US Thinks it Has the World's Fastest Supercomputer:  On 9/1 I
reported that a research group led by Professor Daiichiro Sugimoto at Tokyo
University developed the world's fastest supercomputer on 8/28.  The
computer, named "Grape-4," performed at one teraflop (1 trillion operations
per second).  The group is using the computer, which links 1700
high-performance LSIs, for specialized astrophysics calculations.  It can
also calculate molecular behavior in proteins and plasmas; and be used for
other basic research applications.  It runs more than 3 times faster than
the current world speed record, set by a Sandia-Intel team in December '94,
of 281 gigaflops.  The Tokyo University computer cost ´200 million ($2
million).  Interestingly, newspapers this week reported that Sandia-Intel
will try for a new record during the next year of 1.8 teraflops per second.
The Sandia-Intel computer, which will link 9000 microprocessors, will cost
$46 million and will simulate nuclear weapon blasts.  English language
newspapers failed to acknowledge Tokyo University's development, citing the
Sandia-Intel 281 gigaflop computer as the world's fastest computer.


2) Japan Budget News:  Fearing that Japan is falling behind other nations
in science and technology funding, MITI, MOE and STA banded together in
July to ask for a "special additional budget" (tokubetsu kasan) for FY96 of
´140 billion that would be taken out of a special budget framework set
aside for public works spending.  The three ministries submitted their
request on 8/31, posing that science and technology should be just as
important as public works spending on roads and rivers.  This additional
´140 billion would be in addition to the ´1.2 trillion ($12 billion) S&T
general account budget that the three ministries presently control.  If
approved, universities would have to compete for funding since, for
example, rather than being provided for solely by MOE, universities could
apply directly to MITI for funds.  The MPT and the MAFF are complaining
that they have been "left out" and "won't stand for the other three
ministries running alone" on budget requests; the MPT and MAFF each
submitted individual budget requests.


3) MITI Budget Request:  Also by the 8/31 deadline, MITI requested ´950
billion from the FY96 national budget, an amount which includes ´337
billion for R&D.  The MITI appropriations would represent a 5.5% increase
over the original budget for FY95.  According to the Yomiuri, MITI's budget
request "emphasizes promotion of research and development of
next-generation technology and restructuring of the nation's economy, in
tandem with economic cooperation with Japan's Asian neighbors."  Of the
´337 billion, ´2.7 will go to the New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization for R&D in such areas as biotechnology and
information technology.


----------------(END)---------------