A new Hyperion Research opinion paper, sponsored by Dell Technologies and AMD, recommends that the US government increase its investment in high-performance computing (HPC), also known as supercomputing. The paper, titled “To Out-compute is to Out-compete: Competitive Threats and Opportunities Relative to US Government HPC Leadership,” outlines the benefits of HPC, examines recent trends, and forecasts future needs.
Included in the report are the following five reasons why US agencies urgently need to spend more on HPC:
1. Every dollar spent on HPC generates $507 in revenue.
As part of a separate project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Hyperion Research has been tracking the return on investment (ROI) from HPC investments since 2013.
The numbers are startlingly high.
For every dollar invested in HPC, finance, manufacturing, life sciences, and transportation companies generates $504 in additional sales. Industrial firms see ROI nearly as high, generating an additional $452 in revenue for every dollar spent on supercomputing. And on average, those additional sales generate $38 in additional profit or cost savings.
2. HPC research saves lives.
Historically, government research that relies on HPC has helped save lives in a number of different ways, including the following:
- By predicting severe weather, giving people time to evacuate or make other arrangements to mitigate the impact of disastrous storms.
- By modeling nuclear accidents and other types of events that are difficult or undesirable to test, helping prevent and prepare for these types of situations.
- By analyzing test and real-world data to help make cars, planes, and other vehicles safer.
- By helping investigate and develop strategies to prevent criminal activity, including cybercrime.
- By assisting in the development of military technologies that reduce military and civilian casualties.
- By empowering the Department of Energy to secure its nuclear stockpile while also preventing nuclear proliferation and reducing nuclear threats around the world.
- By enabling genetic and medical research that can help treat and prevent serious disease.
Most of these efforts continue today, and the government is also using HPC to investigate sustainable energy and other ways to combat global climate change.
3. Investing in HPC keeps the country strong.
Many US agencies are involved in public/private partnerships which allow innovations that arise out of government HPC projects to flow into the private sector, and vice versa. These efforts help the country maintain its dominant position in the global economy.
In addition, by purchasing HPC hardware manufacturer by US companies, the government boosts the US technology sector, which plays a huge role in the current economy. These investments help ensure that the country will maintain its position of strength worldwide.
The report also notes:
“Investments in high performance computing (HPC) are recognized globally as a fundamental tool for conducting R&D and advancing the economic competitiveness of nations. More countries than ever are increasing their spending on HPC infrastructure and critical associated areas, including AI, applications development and optimization, and workforce development and retention. Nations who do not adequately invest in HPC infrastructure and workforce development run the very real risk of weakening their national defense and falling behind economically.”
As outlined in the US Constitution, it is the government’s job to ” provide for the common defense, [and] promote the general Welfare.” Meeting those goals requires agencies to take steps which help keep the nation’s military and economy strong.
4. HPC enables scientific and academic innovation.
Many of the Nobel laureates in recent decades were recognized for achievements that relied on HPC. The report also notes that “In academia, HPC use has spread from its established strongholds in the physical sciences to the social sciences and the humanities.”
Government agencies and public universities that invest in HPC facilitate continued innovation across a wide range of disciplines.
5. Without adequate HPC investment, the United States runs the risk of falling behind other countries.
For more than 50 years, the US was the recognized leader in supercomputing. But now other countries are catching up, and on some measures, outpacing the United States.
The performance of the world’s fastest supercomputers is 70,000 times better today than it was just 20 years. If it wants to continue to keep pace, the US needs to continue investing in this area, not only in the leadership-class machines that grab headlines, but also in the smaller divisional- and departmental-class systems that can handle the growing volume of analytics workloads.
For more information
Read the full “To Out-compute is to Out-compete: Competitive Threats and Opportunities Relative to US Government HPC Leadership” paper. Visit dell.com/fed and learn more about High Performance Computing at delltechnologies.com/hpc.