U. may receive grant money for computer

The United States Senate approved a $3 billion plan last month to create an international supercomputer system that University researchers hope will bring additional money to the University. The proposed system, an advanced and expanded version of a computer the University currently tests, would be able to link computers and transmit three-dimensional visual pictures. The bill is expected to be signed by President George Bush by next week. Proposed by Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.), the bill would allocate development money to several federal agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation. Approximately one third of this money would support NSF, an organization that funds institutions including the University and other Ivy League schools, independent researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Professor of Computer and Information Science David Farber is the co-chair of the research group working on the computer. The University, already supported by a $2.5 million grant from the NSF, has taken part in a preliminary network program called Internet, or NSFnet, which is a less efficient and less capable supercomputer than the proposed system, dubbed the National Research and Education Network. "The purpose [of NREN] is to provide faculty with a very high-tech testbed for networking ideas of the future," said Dan Finnigan, a Wharton graduate student who worked under Farber. The University is at an advantage to receive funding because it is one of the first institutions to work on supercomputers. If the bill passes, the University will take precedence in being one of the selected testbeds. "As far as communications networking, we're one of the key players so we should be in a marvelous position to be in the lead," Farber said. The network would give both professors and students at the University the ability to communicate and work together with people at other institutions around the world. Because of the speed of transmission, it will no longer be more efficient to send information via an overnight mail carrier. "It allows people to live in cyberspace," Farber said. "It will be a major jump in computer science if it happens." Major changes are possible within the next few years, such as bringing lectures thousands of miles away to the University by computer. "It would open up new ways of thinking," Farber said. "People [at the University] should be able to sit in their workstations and watch seminars in Stanford, across campus, or the ocean." The system would also be able to transmit three-dimensional pictures from any distance. The advances are so revolutionary that the system is unlike any other "supercomputers" of its kind. "NREN can transmit visual pictures over the network, vastly increasing access to remote computing," said Peter Patton, vice provost for information systems and computing. "The differences in degree are so big that they amount to a different kind [of system]." While the bill, if signed as expected, has the potential to increase significantly the amount of computer research done in the country, money has not been budgeted to different governmental organizations. Any additional money the University would receive for supercomputer research depends upon how much the NSF itself receives. "There won't be major additional money [supplied for the system] without a real political battle," Farber said. "Money [allocated for other projects] can be relabelled." Farber said the U.S. must continue its efforts to improve technology in order to keep up with competitive countries such as Japan. The technology is important for international trade and for the development of society in general, he added. "The U.S. lead in high-performance computing is being threatened by our competitors who recognize . . . its value in the world economy," Gore said in a written statement. "This research program and this network help ensure that the U.S. remains on the cutting edge of these technologies." "[The bill] is the body fuel that keeps us going and provides the punch when we need it . . . and gives us the opportunity to compete," Faber said. "It will be the infrastructure that we will need as a modern society." (CUT LINE) Please see SUPERCOMPUTER, page 9 SUPERCOMPUTER, from page 1

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