Challenges of Future High-End Computing

With the recent achievement of one teraflop/s (1012flop/s) on the ASCI Red system at Sandia National Laboratory in the U.S., many have asked what lies ahead for high-end scientific computing. The next major milestone is one petaflop/s (1015 flop/s). Systems capable of this level of performance may be available by 2010, assuming key technologies continue to advance at currently projected rates.