U.S. sets plan to build two exascale supercomputers

The U.S believes it will be ready to seek vendor proposals to build two exascale supercomputers -- costing roughly $200 million to $300 million each -- by 2019.

The two systems will be built at the same time and will be ready for use by 2023, although it's possible one of the systems could be ready a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Energy officials.

But the scientists and vendors developing exascale systems do not yet know whether President-Elect Donald Trump's administration will change directions. The incoming administration is a wild card. Supercomputing wasn't a topic during the campaign, and Trump's dismissal of climate change as a hoax, in particular, has researchers nervous that science funding may suffer.

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