Response to Senate Armed Services Committee Request for Information on the National Security Implications of Decontrolling Export to Tier III Countries of High Performance Computers Between 2,000 and 40,000 MTOPS
The SASC requested information about the national security implications of decontrolling the export of computers with performance ratings between 2,000 and 40,000 MTOPS (Millions of Theoretical Operations per Second). We respond to this request by: (1) Discussing computer performance thresholds for nuclear weapons design application software, (2) Examining currently available hardware (including desktop PCs, workstations, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) parallel computers, high-end-supercomputers, and highest-end supercomputers) with respect to their utility for nuclear weapon design and their controllability, (3) Briefly commenting on examples of computers available from foreign countries, (4) Discussing the implications of newly emerging COTS parallel clusters for various computer export control strategies. In addition, we are making available to the SASC the DOE sensitive technologies list.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 792565
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-137501; TRN: US200301%%236
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 10 Feb 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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