Congress approves $1 billion system to connect colleges

It can do basically everything but leap buildings in a single bound. A proposed $1 billion supercomputer network will allow University students and professors to attend lectures at Stanford University, transmit volumes of encyclopedias coast to coast in a second, and make it easier for professors at distant colleges to cooperate in research. The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to spend $1 billion over five years to create the supercomputer network linking universities, research facilities and corporations. Supporters of the High Performance Computing and Communications Bill promised that the network will transform the nation's infrastructure like the interstate highway system did decades ago. "Scientific computing is undergoing a revolution," Peter Patton, Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing, said last night. "Instead of moving goods and people, on this data highway we will move animated images." The bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Albert Gore (D-Tenn.) divides the money between building the network and the research and development of the supercomputers and software. Under the current system, called Internet, students and professors can transmit text and files at a rate of 1.4 million bits per second. According to Computer Information Science Professor David Farber, this rate will soon be improved to 45 million bits per second. The new supercomputer system could make transmission an additional 40 times faster. "The new network will change the way we communicate, the way we talk and see and trade information," said Farber, who directs a University lab dedicated to network research. The new system will no longer restrict professors to text files, allowing them to transmit video, animation and sound. This ability to transmit multimedia images is one of the most important advances in science, according to CIS Professor Ruzena Bajcsy. Professors said although the system will benefit all schools, the University will be in a better position than most to take advantage of it because it is one of the forerunners in network research and implementation. "We are the first university to be fully networked with fiber optics, of which we have hardly begun to reap the benefits," Patton said. "And we are one of the leading experts." Farber also said the network will create industry for the nation and maintain U.S. leadership in the network field which otherwise "would have passed to nations across the Pacific." But he cautioned that research funding is always uncertain and that no one should ever count on funding that may never be delivered due to budget cuts. The Bush Administration has publicly endorsed the general policy, according to Farber, but the president has yet to sign the bill and may not approve the full $1 billion. The House has already passed similar legislation. "But we have to put our mind to the network and a lot of sweat," Farber said. "This is certainly looked at as the most basic longterm change in the way that the nation does business."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.