Session: Town Hall Meeting: The Future of Supercomputing   Title:   Chair: Cynthia Patterson (National Research Council), Susan Graham (UC Berkeley), Marc Snir (UIUC)   Time: Wednesday, November 19, 5:00PM - 6:00PM   Rm #: 40-41   Speaker(s)/Author(s):     Cynthia Patterson (National Research Council), Susan Graham (UC Berkeley), Marc Snir (University of Illinois), William Dally (Stanford University), Jack Dongarra (University of Tennessee), Chuck Koelbel (Rice University), Robert Lucas (University of Southern California), Steven Wallach (Chiaro Networks)       Description:   How should the nation approach research and development of supercomputers to ensure its future leadership in science and technology? What is the appropriate economic model for supercomputers? How should investment be allocated between scientific applications, mathematical algorithms, system software, and hardware architectures? The National Research Council has established a committee to: (1) assess prospects for supercomputing technology research and development in support of U.S. needs, (2) examine the changing nature of problems demanding supercomputing (e.g., weapons design, molecule modeling and simulation, cryptanalysis, bioinformatics, climate modeling) and the implications for systems design, (3) understand the role of national security in the supercomputer market and the long-term federal interest in supercomputing, and (4) identify options for progress. The study, which is being funded by the Department of EnergyÌs Office of Science and Advanced Simulation and Computing Program, will issue a final report by December 2004. An interim report was issued in August 2003. In this BOF session, a panel drawn from the committee and moderated by Susan Graham and Marc Snir, will briefly summarize the issues being addressed in the study and the content of the interim report. More importantly, they will solicit input from the stakeholders in the supercomputing community about the direction of the field, thus providing participants with an opportunity to influence the committee's work. Additional information about the study can be found on the committeeÌs website at http://www.cstb.org/project_supercomputing.html.   Link: --