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

摘要

The Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to assist the Committee in assessing the national security implications of any relaxation of export controls on High Performance Computers (HPCs). In particular, LLNL was tasked to assess: (1) How these computers could be used militarily, (2) Whether they could be effectively controlled and for how long, (3) The significance and quality of available foreign computers projected to be available on the open market in the next two years, (4) Alternative control mechanisms based on technology or capability that might be more effective to protect national security, and (5) Issues related to other critical technologies. Abstract 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.