Communications of the ACM
Supercomputers Often Run Outdated Software
Supercomputing experts discussed the issue of supercomputing software during a recent conference in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation. Old software continues to be used to run supercomputers, and will become a problem as researchers pursue better weather models, medical simulations, and other applications on the latest supercomputers.
Fortran remains a popular language for creating programs for supercomputers, and some college researchers are even patching up their old, homemade software to run their supercomputer projects. With the National Science Foundation focusing its grants more on assisting colleges with the purchase of supercomputers, some attendees said there is a lack of money to support the development of supercomputing software.
Representatives from supercomputing manufacturers suggested that the market for software is too small. "It's so hard of a problem that no one wants to touch it," said Georgetown University's Jess Cannata.
From The Chronicle of Higher Education
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