The HPCC Program reports to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. At his direction, overall Program budget oversight is provided by the National Science and Technology Council through its Committee on Information and Communication. In September 1993, the National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications (NCO) completed its first year of coordinating the HPCC Program and serving as a liaison to the U.S. Congress, state and local governments, foreign governments, industry, universities, and the public.
The High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology (HPCCIT) Subcommittee and its Executive Committee coordinate Program planning, budgeting, implementation, and review; meet with other Federal organizations with mutual interests; and communicate with other Federal agencies and the U.S. Congress. In FY 1994, the Subcommittee met with technology experts from leading hardware, telecommunications, and software companies. The representatives were asked to comment on the Program and provide advice on technical and programmatic issues in high performance computing and communications. Similar meetings are planned with other constituencies.
HPCCIT working groups coordinate the efforts in the various Program components. The newest one, the Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications Task Group, established in 1993, has developed coordinated agency plans for R&D in NII technology and National Challenge applications. The networking working group coordinates its activities with the Federal Networking Council (FNC) whose membership extends beyond HPCC. The FNC establishes strategy and policy direction, provides further coordination, and addresses technical, operational, and management issues of the Interagency Internet. Its Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee represents a broad spectrum of network users and providers. Both individual agencies and these working groups sponsor meetings with industry and academia, including biennial meetings with hardware vendors to discuss plans, and periodic Grand Challenge workshops.
The early success of the HPCC Program is now providing it with one of its greatest management challenges, as more programs use its technologies, as new sectors of the economy are relying on scalable parallel systems, and as more people are becoming aware of its value to the Nation. The Program itself is highly leveraged across many other governmental and private sector programs, and the synergy between the emerging technologies and pilot applications of this R&D program is revealed in numerous other application areas. Practically every Federal agency has activities that are not part of the HPCC Program but that use the technologies and results from the Program. Some of those associated with agencies that participate in the Program are described in this document. Other education, health care, design for manufacturing, and related scientific research programs are not part of the HPCC Program but depend on HPCC technologies. The explosive growth of computing and networking will result in the pervasiveness of high performance computing and communications that are the foundation of the NII.