Computing Research News Bytes

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

                        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..