SUPER COMPUTER CONFERENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91B00776R000100030018-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 21, 2008
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 21, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

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0 ?
NIO/W
21 September 1983
NOTE FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
FROM David Y. McManis
N T ' !J 9 it l
SUBJECT : Super Computer Conference
The attached editorial from Computerworid
is one of the first significant public
manifestations of the recent Super Computer
Conference jointly sponsored by NSA and the
Los Alamos National Laboratory. It apparently
was very successful and represents significant
movement in an important area. Unless someone
else is providing you details, I would be
pleased to get from NSA a rundown on the
results of the Conference. Alternately, you
may wish to have NSA's Chief Scientist come
down and brief you.
Attachment:
As stated
Yes, written brief
Chief Scientist brief
See me
cc: Executive Director
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 Approved For Release 2008/04/21: CIA-RDP91 B00776R000100030018-9
? ?
21 September 1983
SUBJECT: Super Computer Conference
Distribution:
Orig - DCI (w/att)
1 - Executive Director (w/att)
1 - C/NIC (w/att)
1 - VC/NIC (Mr. Meyer) (w/att)
1 - VC/NIC (Mr. Waterman) (w/att)
1 - NIO/W Chron (w/o att)
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 Approved For Release 2008/04/21: CIA-RDP91 B00776R000100030018-9
September 19, 1983
LECHT ON SCIENCE /Charles P. Lecht
?C9?VTEIWO1u
'The Federation': Year.One
Security Agency (NSA) and Los Ala- This is the first of a three-part
mos National Laboratory (LANL) for series on supercomputer develop-
.their joint sponsorship of a' confer- ment in the U.S.
ence on the frontiers of supercom-
puting (Los Alamos, N.M., Aug. 15-
19,1983). Given today's micro mania,
some people may not even be aware
that.there are such things as super-
computers, while others may simply
have concluded that the only "su-
per" thing about supercomputers is
their cost: $5 million to $10 million
dollars each. The NSA/LANL event
confirmed both their existence and
our continuing need for yet larger
machines than the mere 20 millions
of floating point operations per sec-
ond (1M Flops) jobbies currently
available.
To help orient you microphiliacs,
the aforementioned 20M Flops giant
is roughly the equivalent of 40,000
IBM Personal Computers. The ma-
chines now under development are
20G Flops titans - 40 million Per-
sonal Computers -- and they, too,
will eventually prove too small; for
with each improvement in speed, the
results achieved suggest new compu-
tational domains of such enormous
promise that we are compelled, if
only by our irrepressible curiosity, to
explore them. Supercomputers, like
spaceships, can return incredible
benefits to the quality of our lives.
The spirit of the NSA/LANL
meeting was exemplary both for its
candor and deeply compelling sense
if shared purpose. Also notable was
the technical (and political) level of
discourse, reflecting great credit on
the leaders of.both organizations, as,
indeed, it did on the extraordinary
cross section of individuals gathered
there.
allowed next to nothing of leisure
time (and in that company, who
would have wanted anything but the
exhilaration of work?). NSA's Chief
Scientist K.H. Speierman opened and
closed the working conference ses-
sions with such dignity and compe-
tence that we can understand why
the post he now occupies with such
distinction lay vacant from the agen-
cy's inception until the moment he
could be a ointed to fill it As to the
Those in Attendance pp
substance of the meetings, it should
Brought together in one room for suffice to name but a few of the
five days were z bout 150 scientists, speakers to afford some knowledge
businessmen, military leaders, high- of its quality: There were addresses
level civilian cff icials from the U.S. by William C. Norris, chairman of
Department of defense, university Control Data Corp.; John Rollwagen,
professors and ,elected, influential president of Cray Research Corp.;
members of the press, each with a R.D. DeLauer, undersecretary of de-
point of view anci the means and will fense for research and engineering;
to give it voice. Characterized as it Dr. Sidney Fernbach, chairman of
was by the remai kable give-and-take the Institute of Electrical and Elgc-
emanating from these, the most ex- tronics Engineers Committee on Su-
aited ranks of cur government and percomputers; Dr. R.H. Ewald, com-
industrial leads-n:hip, the conference puter division leader, LANL; Dr.
managed to maze history of the most Nicholas Metropolis, senior fellow,
intensely practical, immediate sort, LANL; Robert Cooper, director of
even while taking place in an envi- Defense Advanced Research Project
ronment that" is to contemporary Agency; Dr. K.G. Wilson, Nobel lau-
technological cosmology what the reate and professor, Cornell Univer-
empyrean doubtless was to medieval sity; and many others outstanding in
philosophers: the very highest of the their respective fields. Without such
spheres. To attend, one had to set his convocations as this one, it is saying
clock forward. -' , little enough to observe that the
Bracketed by. the keynote address transfer of the special knowledge of
of Adm. Bobby Inman, new presi- these very special people would be.
dent of Microelectronics and Com- significantly set back.
Page 47
ing the first meeting of "The Federa-
tion," as it would instantly be recog-
nized by "trekkies" everywhere. Set
in that scientific vortex, the nuclear
fountainhead of Los Alamos, housed
within the walls of the J. Robert Op-
penheimer Study Center (the Library
of Alexandria redivivus), attended
by persons dedicated to the advance-
ment of science and the quality of
life through supercomputer develop-
ment - could one fail to feel oneself
in the company of those who would
blaze a trail to the stars?
Readers may be surprised at the
absence here of critical comments on
the conference, but not, I hope, inor-
dinately. I did not want to obscure or
dilute my message of congratulations
to the government agencies that had
the insight to convene a meeting on
so critical an issue and the wisdom to
act now, before it is indeed too late.
The day-to-day events of the con-
ference have been sparsely reported,
if at all. Strangely, almost no major
nontrade newspapers or magazines
covered it, while the ones that did
contented themselves with* sensa-
tionalized rehashings of- official
press releases.
This might, conceivably, lead one
to believe that little of consequence
actually took place, aside from the
extraordinariness of the gathering it-
self. Nothing could be further from
the truth.
Lecht is chairman of Lecht_ Sciences,
puter Technology Corp., and the Call me a techno-romantic, a sci-fi Inc., a New York-based think tank spe-
locknote speech of Gen. L.D. Faurer, nut, but I found myself thinking cializing in computer and communica-
NSA'a, director, was a program that that, by Jupiter, there I was, attend- tions technologies.
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