As we glance at 2011 in the rear view mirror, it’s hard to believe that The Exascale Report has been publishing for eighteen months. When we started our subscription-based publication to focus on a topic receiving very little coverage at the time, we really had no idea what kind of acceptance we’d find. Today we are going strong with a growing international base of readers. We’re proud to be playing a small role in helping bring together the future exascale community.

With such a long way to go between now and the exascale target timeframe of 2020, many in the industry have understandably described the industry’s efforts to move forward as a journey. The journey has now officially turned into a race, and those who have formally entered the race include China, Japan, Europe, the U.S., Russia and India.

For many years, technology leadership, particularly around HPC, seemed to be entitled to the U.S. But not anymore. False confidence, which some have described as U.S. arrogance, political infighting among U.S. funding sources, and perhaps even a lack of belief or understanding of the importance of a national science and education foundation have all been factors in how this race is shaping up.