PM Transcripts

48/ 95
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATION LINK
At our meeting today MITI Minister Hashimoto and I agreed that Australia and
Japan will establish a high performance computing electronic data connection
between the two countries. The initial capacity of the link will be l92KBit per
second.
This initiative will provide a foundation for the development of broadband
communications between Australia and Japan.
The network connection will allow close collaboration between Australia and
Japan in new generation high performance computers. A working group of
officials from both countries will be examining the further enhancement of the
communications link to at least 2MBit.
That capacity would support software research and development in
broadband and multi-media technologies and real-time simulation associated
with industrial design of new components. This agreement will help ensure
that Australia and Japan remain at the forefront of information technology
developments. We hope this bilateral connection will eventually become a building block for
a more extensive high-speed data network linking other countries in the
region. Eventual applications for the enhanced research collaboration which such
links can support include advanced climate modelling ( including prediction of
weather and global climate change) computational ocean science,
superconductivity and linked testbeds for research into advanced multi-media
applications such as simultaneous virtual reality modelling of 3-0 spaces.
International communications links, such as this, are an integral element in
the development of the Australian Government's national strategy on
information and communications services and technology.
The initiative builds on existing cooperation between Australia and Japan in
high performance computing and communications.
TOKYO 27 May 1995