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NERSC 3 Greenbook

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Encourage collaborations and integration among ER physical, computational, and computer science programs.

New architectures and the constant change in the computational technology area require large investments of time for development efforts to maintain and augment scientific application codes and for understanding the implications of these changes with respect to algorithmic choices. It is quite clear that the advances of computational science over the last two decades are due to the coupling of advances in both computational technology and algorithm design. The goal or ``holy grail'' in this area is the single source that encompasses the entire software suite's functionality which is portable from the workstation to the MPP system and is also extensible or adaptable to architectural changes. There are two conflicting requirements here in that in short-term the application must run efficiently on the resources at hand and in the long-term the application must migrate to new technology.

Although, progress can be made by individual physical and computer science efforts, many research efforts have made significant progress by the strong integration between physical scientists and computer scientists. This idea can and should be extended to interaction among physical science efforts as well. NERSC is now in a position to not only be more closely involved in ER research programs but also to facilitate collaborations by acting as the ``Collaboratory meeting place'' for ER scientific efforts. NERSC has taken steps via strategic partnerships with specific areas and our recommendation is to continue this and associated efforts. We encourage collaborations and integration among ER physical, computational, and computer science programs, and also encourage that the funding and performance reviews include a measure of the value of such integrated collaborations.

NERSC 3 Greenbook

Next: Encourage software development. Up: Specific Recommendations Previous: Strengthen the networks.