The Future of High Performance Computing at NASA

Abstract

Computers are a growing part of everyday life in many ways. For some of the biggest and most interesting problems, people have used some of the biggest and most interesting computers. This is the general area of High Performance Computing (HPC) or Supercomputing. Supercomputing has many uses in corporations and government organizations. One organization with a long and storied history with supercomputing is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division has created or incorporated techniques and technology that has changed the course of supercomputing. The supercomputers at NASA have a variety of missions including weather forecasting and climate change predictions to helping astronauts at the International Space Station. As long as humans continue to explore and think of bigger questions, supercomputing will continue to grow. This poster provides a literature review of documentation relating to current and past supercomputers at NASA, as well as a discussion of the future of supercomputing at NASA by looking at the trends in the current market. This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX15AK02H NASA Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium.