LBNL, Berkeley, California, USA
Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA
SLAC, Menlo Park, California, USA
Thanks to sustained advances in hardware and software technologies, computer modeling is playing an increasingly important role in the design of particle accelerators. This rise in importance is further fueled by the economic pressure for reducing uncertainties and costs of development, construction and commissioning, thus pushing the field toward an increased use of “virtual prototyping”. Until now, the development of accelerator codes has been left to projects without mandate and programmatic funding for coordination, distribution and user support. While this is adequate for the development of relatively small-scale codes on targeted applications, a more coordinated approach is needed to enable general codes with user bases that extend beyond individual projects, as well as cross-cutting activities. In light of this, it is desirable to strengthen and coordinate programmatic activities of particle accelerator modeling within the accelerator community. This increased focus on computational activities is all the more timely as computer architectures are transitioning to new technologies that require the adaptation of existing - and emergence of new - algorithms and codes.
