Petascale computing refers to both petaflops, a million-billion calculations per second, and petabytes, a million-billion bytes of data. This level of computing power will enable the study of scientific problems at an unprecedented level of detail. For example, current models allow scientists to design materials with thousands of atoms, while petascale computing will allow models with millions of atoms, yielding more accurate simulations of the properties of these materials. During the past two decades, there have been many calls for investment in supercomputing resources in support of U.S. science and engineering research. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has responded by establishing a network of supercomputing centers and associated infrastructure that is open to the broad academic research community. Despite this investment, recent assessments of cyber-infrastructure requirements have indicated that research at the frontiers of the geosciences in the U.S. is being impeded by an acute shortage of capability-class (the most powerful supercomputers used to solve the largest and most demanding problems) computing resources. For more on this, see the October issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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