Since 1986 - Covering the Fastest Computers
in the World and the People Who Run Them
Visit additional Tabor Communication Publications
August 13, 2012
National Research Council Recommends National Photonics Initiative
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 -- A new report from the National Research Council identifies research priorities and grand challenges to fill gaps in optics and photonics, a field that has the potential to advance the economy of the United States and provide visionary directions for future technology applications. The report recommends that the federal government develop a "National Photonics Initiative" to bring together academia, industry, and government to steer federal research and development funding and activities.
"Much is unknown when pursuing basic optical science and its transition to engineering and ultimately to products, but the rewards can be great," said Alan Willner, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report. "There are a number of opportunities that could change our daily lives."
"People do not think of Google as an optics company, but a typical Google data center has more than a million lasers in it," said Paul McManamon, technology director of the Ladar and Optical Communication Institute at the University of Dayton and committee co-chair. "The Internet example is only one case where work in optics and photonics may be a small part of the money invested in research, but is a critical enabler for high-tech businesses and jobs."
The committee named five grand challenges facing the nation that can be addressed with advances in optics and photonics technology. The first is to keep up the pace of technological achievement established in previous decades. Others include improved military surveillance and missile defense, achieving cost parity for solar power versus fossil fuel across the country's electrical grid, reaching seamless integration of photonics and electronics at the chip level, and developing optical sources and imaging tools to support increased resolution in manufacturing.
Eight particular areas of technological application are discussed in separate chapters: communications, information processing, and data storage; defense and national security; energy; health and medicine; advanced manufacturing; advanced photonic measurements and applications; strategic materials for optics; and displays. Each chapter reviews progress that has occurred since the 1998 National Research Council report Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century, as well as the technological opportunities that have risen from recent advances in optical science and engineering. The report recommends actions for the development and maintenance of global leadership in photonics-driven industries, including both near-term and long-range goals, likely participants, and responsible agents of change.
A National Photonics Initiative will help manage the breadth of rapidly expanding applications of photonics technologies, the report says, allowing both government and industry to form coherent strategies for technology development and deployment. The recommended initiative should also spearhead a collaborative effort to improve the collection and reporting of research, development, and economic data on this sector.
"The impact of optics and photonics on U.S. technology leadership is substantial; this is a critical reason to support a National Photonics Initiative," said McManamon. "Optics and photonics facilitates many technology areas and is therefore critical to U.S. high-tech competitiveness. A National Photonics Initiative will ensure that we make full use of these technologies."'
-----
Source: National Research Council
Discussion
There are 0 discussion items posted.
|
Join the Discussion |
Sponsored Links
Join Michael Wolfe as he compares the advantages and costs of using both low-level models and the directive-based OpenACC model for programming accelerated heterogeneous systems. Registration is free.
Accelerate your science with Seneca
One of the first HPC providers installing a 4X NVIDIA Kepler K-20 cluster. Invites you to a free evaluation on Seneca’s NVIDIA K20 Kepler cluster, pre-loaded with AMBER, NAMD, LAMMPS
High-Performance Computing in Action
Businesses that want to be on the cutting edge of their industries are increasingly turning to high-performance computing (HPC) solutions to handle complex compute processes and speed up their rate of innovation. Download this Executive Brief to see how businesses in energy, life sciences and entertainment put HPC solutions to work in their operations.
- ClusterStor™ 1500 – High Performance Efficiency
- PGI 2013: OpenMP 1.5X faster than GCC, new GNU-compatible OpenACC C++ compiler, CUDA 5 and Tesla K20 support, and more.
- Memory Debugging Challenges in Parallel and Distributed Applications
- The Accelerated Genomics Cloud $25,000 Giveaway
- Acer and Altair simplify cluster computing
- Visualize Historical Usage for Optimized Returns on HPC Investments
- White Paper: Building a Data-Intensive Cluster Supercomputer
- Receive Higher Application Performance with end-to-end 56GbE
RSS Feeds
Feeds by Topic
- Applications
- Developer Tools
- Interconnects
- Middleware
- Networks
- Processors
- Storage
- Systems
- Visualization
Feeds by Industry
Feeds by Content Type
- Features
- Blogs
- Short Takes
- Off the Wire
- Whitepapers
- Multimedia
- HPC Soundbite Podcasts
- HPCwire Job Bank
Subscribe to All Content
May 24, 2013
- IEEE TCSC Young Achievers in Scalable Computing
- Bright Computing Named Winner of 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award
- Supermicro Announces New High-Density Server Solutions
May 23, 2013
- TACC to Upgrade to Internet2's Fastest Network Connection: 100 Gbps
- European Commission CoolEmAll Project Releases Prototypes
- Internet2 Establishes Direct Peering to Microsoft Cloud Services
- Model of Sun's Magnetic Field Created
- Enthought Awarded $1M Grant to Develop Python HPC Framework
- Supermicro Server Platforms to Use NVIDIA GRID Technology
- LG Electronics Becomes Lead Partner for ARM Cortex-A50 Family of Products
- ProximusDA Teams with STMicroelectronics to Develop Virtual Prototypes
- The Brain as a Model for Future Supercomputers
May 22, 2013
- OpenFabrics Alliance to Host Two RDMA Training Courses at University of New Hampshire
- Imperas Delivers Embedded Software Development Suite Based On ToolMorphing Technology
- University of Ulster to Host Scientific Computing Event
- ICT Investment Trends in Germany
- Skyera Adds NAS to skyHawk Enterprise Solid-State Storage Systems
- NetApp Announces Q4 Results
May 21, 2013
- Keyes and Sterling to Headline IEEE Cluster 2013 Conference
- Cyber Network Gears Up for Growth in the Cloud With IBM PureSystems
- New OMAP5432 Processor-Based Evaluation Module From Texas Instruments
- TwinStrata Introduces On-Demand Disaster Recovery as Service for VMware Users
- Weidlinger Launches PZFlexCloud Using CliQr Technologies
- "Places2Be" Project to Boost European Leadership Around FD-SOI
May 20, 2013
- Cray and VBRX to Host Event for Upstream Applications in Oil and Gas
- Dell to Deliver Public Cloud Through Partner Ecosystem
- Mentor and Tezzaron Optimize Calibre 3DSTACK for 2.5/3D-ICs
- Cloud Provider Selects Mellanox's InfiniBand as Their Cloud Interconnect
- Xyratex to Present at Barclay Telco and Media Event
May 17, 2013
May 16, 2013
- D-Wave Two Quantum Computer Selected for New AI Initiative
- Mines' Powerful New Supercomputer to Focus on Energy Research
- Kitware Develops Customizable Simulation Framework to Provide HPC for Mid-Sized Manufacturers
- Next HPC Installation Step Initiated at High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart
- HybridCluster2.0 Self-Healing, Ultra-High Availability Capabilities Unveiled
May 15, 2013
- Nominations for SC13 Cray, Fernbach and Kennedy Awards Due July 1
- Mellanox Technologies Ltd. Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Kotura, Inc.
- NYSERDA Awards $1.8 Million to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Bright Computing Named Finalist for the 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award
- Flow Science Releases FLOW-3D/MP 5.0
- NEC Establishes NEC Ukraine to Strengthen Operations in Russia and the CIS
- Fujitsu Receives Supercomputer Order From Nagoya University
- Avere Systems Helps Framestore Create Extraordinary Visual Effects for Blockbuster Films
- Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Exascale Systems Call for Papers
May 14, 2013
- Multimillion Pound Project to Develop Next Generation Computing Systems
- HPC Simulations Target Nanoscale Materials Under Strain
- New IBM Center in Beijing to Speed Linux Applications on Power Systems
- OpenCL Software Development Kit Fosters FPGA Exploitation
- S&P Capital IQ and Kuberre Systems Sign Data Facilitator Agreement
- Solarflare to Speak at Linux Foundation Enterprise End User Summit
May 13, 2013
- SDSC Hosts First Annual Industry Partners Research Review
- AMD Targets Server Performance with Open 3.0 Release
- BICS Selects Infinera DTN-X for 500G Pan-European Network
- Juniper Systems Celebrates its 20th Anniversary
Most Read Features
- Adapteva Shows Off $99 Supercomputer Boards
- "No Exascale for You!" An Interview with Berkeley Lab's Horst Simon
- Cray Answers Mid-Market's Call
- The Week in HPC Research
- Saddling Phi for TACC’s Stampede
- Supercomputing Vet Champions Quantum Cause
- Intel’s Big Data to HPC Interconnect
- The Week in HPC Research
- NERSC Managers Shed Light on 'Edison'
- Emerging Technologies at SC13: A Chat with the Chairs
Most Read Around the Web
- Speaking Many Languages into the MIC
- Floating Funding to Exascale Island
- New Tome Tells Modern History of Supercomputing
- Sequoia Hits Warp Speed
- HPC and the True Cost of Cloud
- Revolutionizing Tornado Prediction
- CUDA-Designed Robot: It's a Hit!
- Finnish Researchers Welcome New Cray Super
- Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud
- Blue Waters: Security at Scale
Most Read This Just In
- IBM and Forrester Webinar to Discuss New Ways to Reduce Cost in HPC and Big Data
- Altera Opens FPGAs to Programmers with SDK, Off-the-Shelf Boards for OpenCL
- D-Wave Two Quantum Computer Selected for New AI Initiative
- New Simulation Speed Record Achieved with Sequoia Supercomputer
- AMD Targets Server Performance with Open 3.0 Release
- Brain Outperforms Supercomputers
- Vicor's ChiP Power Component Packaging to Make European Debut at PCIM Europe 2013
- Mines' Powerful New Supercomputer to Focus on Energy Research
- Commercial Quantum Computing Company D-Wave Systems Launches
- XSEDE13 Student Programming Contest Registration Opens April 30
Feature Articles
Exascale Advocates Stand on Nuclear Stockpiles
In quieter times, sounding the bell of funding big science with big systems tends to resonate further than when ears are already burning with sour economic and national security news. For exascale's future, however, the time could be ripe to instill some sense of urgency....
Read more...
NSF Forges Further Beyond FLOPs
In a recent solicitation, the NSF laid out needs for furthering its scientific and engineering infrastructure with new tools to go beyond top performance, Having already delivered systems like Stampede and Blue Waters, they're turning an eye to solving data-intensive challenges. We spoke with the agency's Irene Qualters and Barry Schneider about..
Read more...
CERN, Google Drive Future of Global Science Initiatives
Large-scale, worldwide scientific initiatives rely on some cloud-based system to both coordinate efforts and manage computational efforts at peak times that cannot be contained within the combined in-house HPC resources. Last week at Google I/O, Brookhaven National Lab’s Sergey Panitkin discussed the role of the Google Compute Engine in providing computational support to ATLAS, a detector of high-energy particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Read more...
Short Takes
NASA Builds 'Climate in a Box'
May 23, 2013 |
The study of climate change is one of those scientific problems where it is almost essential to model the entire Earth to attain accurate results and make worthwhile predictions. In an attempt to make climate science more accessible to smaller research facilities, NASA introduced what they call ‘Climate in a Box,’ a system they note acts as a desktop supercomputer.
Read more...
Building Supercomputers with Raspberries
May 22, 2013 |
At some point in the not-too-distant future, building powerful, miniature computing systems will be considered a hobby for high schoolers, just as robotics or even Lego-building are today. That could be made possible through recent advancements made with the Raspberry Pi computers.
Read more...
Running Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Cloud
May 16, 2013 |
When it comes to cloud, long distances mean unacceptably high latencies. Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany examined those latency issues of doing CFD modeling in the cloud by utilizing a common CFD and its utilization in HPC instance types including both CPU and GPU cores of Amazon EC2.
Read more...
Computing the Physics of Bubbles
May 15, 2013 |
Supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) have worked on important computational problems such as collapse of the atomic state, the optimization of chemical catalysts, and now modeling popping bubbles.
Read more...
Sponsored Whitepapers
Best Practices in Big Data Storage
05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.
Progress in Parallel: the Bull Parallel Programming Center
04/15/2013 | Bull | “50% of HPC users say their largest jobs scale to 120 cores or less.” How about yours? Are your codes ready to take advantage of today’s and tomorrow’s ultra-parallel HPC systems? Download this White Paper by Analysts Intersect360 Research to see what Bull and Intel’s Center for Excellence in Parallel Programming can do for your codes.
Sponsored Multimedia
SGI DMF ZeroWatt Disk Solution
In this demonstration of SGI DMF ZeroWatt disk solution, Dr. Eng Lim Goh, SGI CTO, discusses a function of SGI DMF software to reduce costs and power consumption in an exascale (Big Data) storage datacenter.
Cray CS300-AC Cluster Supercomputer Air Cooling Technology Video
The Cray CS300-AC cluster supercomputer offers energy efficient, air-cooled design based on modular, industry-standard platforms featuring the latest processor and network technologies and a wide range of datacenter cooling requirements.
HPC Job Bank
Featured Events
- June 13, 2013
- June 14, 2013
Think Beyond Plastics Conference
Berkeley, CA
United States
- June 16, 2013
- June 20, 2013
ISC'13
Leipzig,
Germany
.gif)
- June 17, 2013
- June 18, 2013
Forecast 2013
San Francisco, CA
United States
- June 20, 2013
- June 21, 2013
CIO North America
Marina Del Rey, CA
United States
- June 24, 2013
- June 25, 2013
The Trading Show Chicago
Chicago, IL
United States
- June 25, 2013
- June 26, 2013
TERATEC 2013 Forum
Paris,
France
