InfoMagic Standards 1994 January/InfoMagic Standards - January 1994.iso/inet/nren/hpca/convex.txt

Text File | 1991-04-13 | 16KB | 289 lines

                      CONVEX COMPUTER CORPORATION
                          WRITTEN STATEMENT
                            Presented to
                             U.S. Senate
                Commerce, Science and Transportation
            Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space



 CONVEX supports S. 272, the High-Performance Computing Act of
 1991, as we believe it will assist U.S.  industry in maintaining
 leadership in computing technology.  We strongly believe this
 legislation can positively contribute to one of the biggest threats
 facing the United States today:  the loss of our international
 competitiveness in all technology related businesses.  In addition, it
 will directly stimulate the supercomputing industry.

 Europe and Japan have targeted information technologies for
 particular attention, and unless decisive steps are taken to ensure
 our continued leadership, the U.S.  could be surpassed in a technology
 field that we largely pioneered and which is vital to our economic
 future.

 The real American competitiveness question involves making our
 nation's industries competitive.  The use of supercomputers is
 mandatory to maintaining America's competitive edge in all of our
 key industries, such as aerospace, automotive, electronics,
 pharmaceuticals, petroleum, etc. -- not just in supercomputing
 manufacturing.

 We believe the actions called for in S. 272 -- particularly the
 acceleration of the development of computer systems and
 subsystems, the stimulation of research on software technology, and
 the application of high-performance computing to "Grand Challenges"
 - - are not only appropriate goals, but vital to maintaining the U.S.
 lead in supercomputers and utilizing supercomputer technology in
 our high-tech industries and research.

 Supercomputers are the fundamental building blocks that contribute
 to almost all disciplines across the broadest spectrum of science and
 technology.  In the 1990's, the way America can stay competitive is
 literally to put supercomputing in the hands of the "masses."
 Supercomputers are to the modern technologist what the invention
 of the microscope was to biologists and the telescope was to
 astronomers.  In fact, supercomputers enable scientists and
 engineers to solve problems for things that are too small, too large,
 too quick, too slow, or too dangerous to observe directly. This use in
 industry results in new products that are more innovative, safer, and
 get to market more quickly.  Their use in research results in
 fundamental breakthroughs in science that change how we see the
 world.  The supercomputer is the one common tool across all U.S.
 scientific and technological activities that, if put in the hands of
 engineers and scientists throughout the United States, can
 dramatically sharpen the competitive output of the United States.
 Of course, Japanese industry and research institutions totally
 understand and believe these concepts.  From our perspective, they
 have been the fastest nation to purchase CONVEX's latest technology.
 Until just recently, there were more of CONVEX's top- of-the-line
 supercomputers in Japan than in the United States. American
 researchers and engineers believe these concepts also, but access to
 supercomputer tools has been limited.  S. 272 can be the catalyst to
 change this trend.

 CONVEX's assessment of the competitive position of the high-
 performance computer industry in the U.S. relative to that of Japan is
 as follows:

 The high-performance computer market is an international market
 in which Cray dominates the high-end of the market, and CONVEX
 dominates the mid-range market.   The Japanese computer
 manufacturers, NEC, Fujitsu, and Hitachi, have high performance, fast
 hardware products.  But while this is the case, U.S. high performance
 computer companies currently maintain the lead in supercomputing
 for the following reason:  supercomputing is not about hardware, it's
 about solving complex problems.  The U.S. supercomputer companies
 are ahead of foreign competition because we understand there are
 aspects to supercomputing solutions:

      o    Balanced, high-performance hardware:  There is more to real
 performance than pure megaflops or gigaflops performance.
 Unfortunately, that' s how performance is commonly measured but
 these definitions must be properly interpreted.  There is much more
 to useful performance than peak speed, such as software
 performance, memory performance, and 1/0 performance.  Users
 care only about the performance of their applications -- the
 problems they specifically solve with their machines -- and this type
 of performance is determined by dozens o attributes.  In terms of
 speed, the Japanese have high peak performance, but that's only a
 part of the supercomputing solution.

      o    Software technology -- Operating systems (UNIX) and
 compilers:     Maintaining the lead requires being proficient at
 several software standards. Companies such as CONVEX and Cray
 recognized the emergence of the UNIX standard long ago and
 designed their machines for UNIX -- now considered a requirement
 in supercomputing. Japanese systems have historically been based on
 IBM standards and only now are attempting to migrate to UNIX. Also
 superior compiler technology is critical to computing performance
 and productivity.  American companies and research institutions lead
 in this areas, as well.

      o    Application specific software:      Most of the supercomputers
 in use today, especially in industry, utilize third-party written
 software applications rather than custom-written software
 applications.  The majority of that third-party software is developed
 by U.S. based organizations.  CONVEX considers having both a broad
 array of application software available on its machines and having
 agreements/relationships with the software developers, as critical
 elements of its competitive strategy and success.  American suppliers
 are leading in this crucial area.

      o    Service and support -- taking care of the customer:  This is a
 critical component in supercomputing solutions. American companies'
 reputations in the area of service and support are superior.
 American suppliers utilize direct sales and support organizations in
 all major markets and, as such, are closer to the customer. Outside of
 Japan, Japanese manufacturers typically use distributors or OEMs for
 sales and customer support.

 It would be naive to believe that U.S. companies will always be able
 to maintain the supercomputer lead for the reasons cited above
 without continual development and diligence in these areas.  The
 Japanese can -- and will, in time -- develop these necessary
 strengths.  Although CONVEX has been selling its supercomputers
 successfully to the Japanese for almost six years now, we also realize
 that when, or if, the Japanese companies decide that the
 price/performance market niche that CONVEX currently dominates is
 a viable and sizable market for Japan, the competitiveness threat
 posed by Japan can become very serious.

 The biggest threats posed by the Japanese to American
 supercomputer companies are:

      o    The size of the big three Japanese companies is over $89
 billion, which provides substantial financial staying power.  This
 gives them the ability to mask the success or lack of success of their
 supercomputer products versus U.S.  supercomputer companies,
 whose existence relies solely on the success of their supercomputers.

      o    Furthermore, they can afford to not be profitable in the
 supercomputer market segment for a very long period of time and
 can buy market share by excessive and unreasonable discounting,
 while public U.S. companies are forced to live by quarter to quarter
 reporting, which represents the results of a single technology focus.

      o    The big three Japanese computer companies also dominate the
 semiconductor industry, including advanced semiconductor research
 and development required to build supercomputers.

      o    The cost of capital differs substantially for U.S. versus
 Japanese companies.

      In light of these factors, staying competitive in today's global
 supercomputer market will take a concerted effort by American
 companies, as well as cooperation and constructive stimulation by
 government.  Certainly, the High-Performance Computing Act of
 1991 will be a positive contribution in this direction.

 Comments on the bill. S. 272

 General Comments

 CONVEX enthusiastically supports this legislation and commends it to
 you for your favorable consideration and swift passage in the House.
 We fully support the idea of a "National High-Performance
 Computing Program." There are several provisions of the bill on
 which I would like to comment and highlight.

 The High-Performance Computing Advisory Panel

 The federal government has played a prominent role in the
 American supercomputing success story and S. 272 again
 demonstrates this leadership.  In several areas of the bill,
 cooperation between government and industry is called for to review
 progress made in implementing the plan and making necessary
 revisions.  In particular, the bill calls for the establishment of a High-
 Performance Computing Advisory Panel consisting of representatives
 from industry and academia to assist with these tasks.  I want to
 highlight this concept as being extremely important to achieving the
 objectives of the bill.  The results of the expenditures for equipment
 and research called for by the bill must ultimately be the
 development of competitively superior commercial products. The
 strategic plan that is put into place by this bill should have this as a
 fundamental objective.  Government is better qualified for some
 aspects of the task, and industry is better qualified for others.
 Partnership between the two will allow the plan to utilize the best
 capabilities of both.  CONVEX has exposure to applications, research
 and product developments occurring all over the world, and in the
 broadest of scientific areas.  We volunteer to help in whatever ways
 we can.

 The National Research and Education Network (NREN)

 CONVEX fully supports the bill's provision calling for the creation of a
 multi-gigabit-per-second National Research and Education Network
 (NREN).  It is our perspective that in the past, too much emphasis
 was placed on providing limited access to too few centralized
 machines.  Supercomputing must be made available to, and meet the
 needs of, a broad base of users through widely distributed
 supercomputer systems placed closer to the ultimate user. This
 would not supplant the centralized machines, but rather complement
 them.

 I suggest that in establishing NREN, it should not only be envisioned
 as a multi-gigabit per second backbone network, connecting only a
 small number of very high-speed, centralized computer systems.
 Let's think of it as a distributed network of computing and
 telecommunications services, serving the widest possible number of
 scientists and engineers from government. industry and academia.
 The National Science Foundation's national supercomputer centers
 represent a case in point.  The program has been a success, but we
 can learn from what those users are additionally asking for:
 supercomputing close to the user.  Let's supplement and complement
 the national supercomputer centers with affordable, open, accessible
 supercomputing facilities, available in departments and dedicated to
 products across the nation.  Let's put a broad range of
 supercomputers, distributed data bases, and other research and
 production facilities, in the very laps of those who need them to help
 maintain and regain America's preeminence in many disciplines.

 Software

 In the last ten years, only about 300 high-end supercomputers have
 been sold by U.S.  companies to industry and to research institutions.
 From CONVEX alone, over 600 high-performance computing systems
 have been shipped in only five years.  American industry needs
 distributed, affordable supercomputing power to remain competitive.
 These companies, large and small, are voting with their checkbooks
 for this means of providing supercomputing. They are using
 supercomputing in production environments, not just in their
 research laboratories.  They need supercomputers to bring new and
 improved products to market faster.  Supercomputers are a valued
 competitive weapon for all of these companies.

 The full utility of supercomputers can only be reached through
 software.  The sophisticated supercomputing user community
 desperately needs improved software development tools, computer-
 assisted software engineering (CASE) capabilities, and better
 algorithmic methods. With this improved state-of-the-art software,
 we can move forward with attacks on the Grand challenges
 enumerated in the bill.

 CONVEX wholeheartedly supports the software tasks and goals of the
 bill.  Care should be taken to ensure that resources are not wasted by
 reinventing what may already exist in industry or somewhere in the
 world.  ~t' s concentrate on improving software technology, but
 adhering to industry standards wherever possible, and avoiding
 proliferating proprietary solutions to software problems.

 Basic Research and Education

 CONVEX strongly supports the provisions of the bill in the areas of
 basic research and education.  Only the largest and richest
 corporations can afford to have very much of their resources
 dedicated to basic research.  Most of the industry, and I count
 CONVEX in this group, must use its limited research and development
 resources in the development and production of the next generations
 of our commercial products.  So we need a fertile source of basic
 research if the supercomputer industry and the nation are to
 progress.

 Again, this must be treated as a partnership.  We must create
 effective, efficient, fast-acting technology transfer mechanisms so
 that our basic research can be fully utilized.  We. therefore.
 recommend that the bill specifically call for the creation of a
 separate. responsible Technology Transfer Program Office to insure
 that basic research is translated into products to be used to further
 all of our goals.

 In the area of education, the United States needs a great deal of
 assistance to help us remain competitive.  The bill's provisions to
 educate and train additional undergraduate and graduate students in
 software engineering, computer science, and computational science
 and to provide researchers, educators, and students with access to
 high-performance computing are extremely worthwhile. However,
 the intent of the bill should be applied across the board in the
 supercomputing industry and should include mechanical engineers,
 packaging engineers, chemical engineers and others.

 Summary

 In summary, I recommend this bill to you.  The amount of funding
 called for by this bill is indeed small when compared to the
 significant economic benefit the program will bring to U.S. industrial
 competitiveness.  It is essential that the United States remain
 aggressive in the area of supercomputer technology.  This bill will
 combine the resources of U.S. industry, government, and universities
 to meet the challenge of foreign competition.