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Computing Research News Bytes
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 15:19:16 -0500
Computing Research News Bytes by Juan Antonio Osuna with Rick Weingarten 6/8/93 GAO Criticizes ARPA on Architecture Research The General Accounting Office released a report in May (GAO/IMTEC- 93-24), criticizing the DoD's Advanced Research Projects Agency for its handling of the High Performance Computers and Communications program. Some researchers have criticized ARPA for procuring only Intel and Thinking Machines supercomputers for use by ARPA projects, while ignoring machines manufactured by other companies.. GAO cleared ARPA of the harsher accusations of serious misconduct, but upheld this general criticism, saying that such a narrow focus has inhibited R&D by other supercomputer manufacturers. The report suggested that ARPA should seek advice from a broader range of researchers who do not directly participate in ARPA projects. Finally, GAO said ARPA needs to give more emphasis to software development, which in the past has been given lower priority than hardware. ARPA claims it has already fixed many of these problems.. GAO is now planning a follow-on study looking more broadly at program management and support for high performance architecture research in all agencies.. House Appropriations Subcom Gives NSF an 11% Increase During a mark-up session on May 27, House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies increased the NSF FY94 budget by 11 percent over FY93. This falls short of the 18 percent NSF had originally requested, but in the current budget climate, it is better than many expected. The 11 percent increase would bring NSF's total budget to $3.024 billion. Research and related activities would receive $2.045 billion for, a 10 percent jump. These marks are just the start. The subcommittee has yet to move the full bill, which contains appropriations for other agencies, including NASA. The subcommittee bill is expected to be reported to the full Appropriations Committee in late June, according to congressional staff. These are still early steps. With a serious political battle over the Clinton deficit reduction proposals looming, predictions of outcomes in spending are foolhardy. Virtually anything could become expendable, even after the money has been appropriated. The librarians found this out painfully. To help pay for a very small summer jobs package for this year, appropriated funds for helping college and university libraries adopt new information technology-based services were withdrawn just before the grant awards were to be made. This, despite administration talk about the information infrastructure and about linking people on-line to the Library of Congress. "Clipper Chip" Proposal Draws Public Criticism The Clinton Administration's recent proposal to implement the Clipper chip as a government encryption standard is receiving a cold welcome from some in the computer community. During a three-day meeting before the Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, dozens of people from academia, industry, and civil liberties groups expressed disapproval for the way the White House is trying to implement its cryptographic policies. Complaints were directed in three directions---to the technology, to the process of selecting the standard, and to the civil liberties implications for Federal wiretapping. The Administration initiated a public review after, rather than before, declaring Clipper as a government standard and ordering thousands of Clipper devices for government use. In light of the negative reaction, the advisory board passed a resolution to extend public review and voted to hold another board meeting in late July. The board also decided to send a letter to the White House to relay public concerns and to suggest tactfully that the president reconsider the Clipper scheme. Amendments to HPCC Act Move Forward On May 25, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a marked-up version of S. 4, the National Competitiveness Act, which includes a section to extend the High-Performance Computing and Communications program. Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC), chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, introduced the bill on Jan. 21. The HPCC portion, known as the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act, specifically focuses on education, digital libraries, health care, and manufacturing. On the House side, a related bill, HR 1757, has also been introduced by Rick Boucher (D-VA), chair of House Science Subcommittee. The bill, called the "High-Performance Computing and High-Speed Networking Applications Act of 1993," amends the HPCC Act of 1991 by adding a program to bring libraries, local governments, schools, health-care providers onto national computer networks. In addition to demonstration projects and connections programs,. the bill also calls for NSF to fund computing research in areas that support the development of such public interest applications. A controversial section of the bill sought to alleviate phone company concerns that the government was creating a subsidized competitor, by restricting federal support for networking. Current users of the Internet were concerned that the restrictions in the bill were overly restrictive and threatened NSF's ability to support educational and research use of the net. The phone companies were pushing for even more restrictive language. Representatives from a few public sector groups (including CRA) met with industry representatives and committee staff to work out more acceptable language. The House bill is scheduled for mark-up this week. The Senate Bill still contains some of the restrictive networking language, and the hope in the research, education, and library communities is that the language negotiated for the House Bill will be substituted for the Senate language when the time comes to merge the two versions..
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