US intelligence agency IARPA launches supercomputing research initiative

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity awards contracts to IBM, Raytheon BBN Technologies and Northrop Grumman Corp

The US intelligence community has begun work on a project to develop a superconducting supercomputer and has awarded contracts to technology firms including IBM.

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is a subsidy of the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which invests in "high-risk, high-payoff research programmes that have the potential to provide our nation with an overwhelming intelligence advantage over our future adversaries".

The latest project it has embarked on is a "multi-year research effort" into what it calls the Cryogenic Computer Complexity (C3) initiative. If successful, the programme will pave the way for a new generation of superconducting supercomputers that are far more energy efficient.

As part of the scheme, contracts have been awarded to IBM – famed for its Watson supercomputer – research and development firm Raytheon BBN Technologies and global security firm Northrop Grumman Corp. Financial details of the deals have not been disclosed.

"The power, space, and cooling requirements for current supercomputers based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology are becoming unmanageable," said Marc Manheimer, C3 programme manager at IARPA.

"Computers based on superconducting logic integrated with new kinds of cryogenic memory will allow expansion of current computing facilities while staying within space and energy budgets, and may enable supercomputer development beyond the exascale," he added.

The goal of the C3 initiative is to establish superconducting computing as a long-term solution to the power cooling problem experienced in supercomputing.

"While, in the past, significant technical obstacles prevented serious exploration of superconducting computing, recent innovations have created foundations for a major breakthrough," said an IARPA statement.

The initial stages of the C3 programme will see IARPA-funded researchers develop components and plans for a prototype computer, with the later aim of building a fully working supercomputer.