“This is an extremely important step for high performance computing in the U.S.,” Horst Simon, a computer science expert and deputy director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told Science magazine.

Image President Obama signed an executive order calling for the creation of the first computer able to perform a quintillion operations a second. Credit... Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Mr. Obama’s executive order, which establishes a cross-government body called the National Strategic Computing Initiative, represents an American commitment to gaining an upper hand in an increasingly competitive race for the fastest supercomputers. China currently has the fastest machine, the Tianhe-2, which can carry out nearly 34 quadrillion operations per second, according to The Top 500 List, a ranking of the world’s most powerful computers.

The United States has the second-fastest machine, a Department of Energy supercomputer that runs at more than 17 quadrillion operations a second. Intel and Cray are collaborating on a Department of Energy project to create a system that would run at 180 quadrillion operations a second, with a deadline of 2018.

Several other world powers, including Russia, India and the European Union, are also pushing toward similar speeds.

Any effort to unlock the technology to faster computing will have to be paired with effort to reduce the amount of power it would require. If an exaflop-capable machine used today’s technology, it would need its own power plant to run. The question has vexed scientists, although some see potential solutions.