This paper on "Web-Centric HPC" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on The Evolution of Product Simulation From Established Methods to Virtual Testing & Prototyping - 24-28 April 2001, The Grand Hotel, Lake Como, Italy.

Introduction to Paper

The Internet revolution has touched every facet of society - and High Performance Computing (HPC) is no exception. In the past several years, we have seen many firms launch dot-corn software to facilitate B2B collaboration, outsource jobs, provide engineering services, or exchange data with suppliers and partners. In the Year 2000, however, we have also seen hundreds of dot-coms fail, or cut staff.
The term ASP (application service provider) has become increasingly popular in the past three years. ASPs deliver and manage applications and services remotely for multiple users - either through the Internet or a private network. Security tops the list of customers' concerns. Hundreds of ASPs have sprung up, and most of these (e.g., Exodus, Qwest, Corio, EDS, Applicast, etc.) host computing services for commercial applications rather than technical ones. The outsourcing of IT services is estimated to be $10 billion in 2000, increasing steadily to $25 billion by 2004.
The hot wireless industry is exemplified by the astronomical sales of NTT's DoCoMo i-mode^TM web-browsing cellular phone service in Japan - with 14 million subscribers ( .. 50,000 people signing up every day), and the total expected to top 20 million by March 2001. The biggest consumer hit in Japan since the Walkman, this service has helped to produce $34 billion annual revenue for NIT DoCoMo. This success of this 3-year-old product is all the more remarkable because it happened within the decade-long, sluggish Japanese economy, and because its superb design packaging, and promotion effort was headed by a woman, Mari Matsunaga (recently named by Fortune magazine as the most powerful woman in Asia). Indeed, NTT DoCoMo has now set its sights on international expansion; it recently entered into an alliance with AOL Japan and is negotiating to buy a 20% stake in AT&T Wireless to penetrate the North American market.
A new buzzword has emerged in the wireless industry, mobile computing, with its own colorful standards named Bluetooth and WAP. No one yet knows the future impact of wireless m-computing (e-mails, VUI, web-computing, web-browsing, anytime-anywhere access) on the Web, B2B collaboration and other e-businesses (Anders, 2000).
This paper introduces some basic ideas in the dot-corn age: portal supercomputing and ASPs, and suggests future directions HPC may take - especially in critical MCAE technologies such as crash, structures, and computational fluid dynamics.