cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu (04/19/91)
I happened to notice that the House passed its version of the High Performance Computing Act today (H.R. 656, if I remember right). That's the beastie that would establish a multi-gigabit long-haul network (Nation Research and Education Network). This thing has been kicking around for several congresses, but this time it seemes to be flying through committees -- if I had to guess, I'd guess that it will become law sometime this year. Quick recap of the bill: (*) it directs a bunch of agencies to allow grant money to be spent on funding the network. (*) there are a batch of studies that are to be done, and Congress and the President are supposed to review some of these studies annually. (*) National Science Foundation is supposed to be connecting colleges, universities and libraries to the net. (*) DARPA does R&D for fiber optics, switches and protocols (*) NIST is supposed to adopt standards and guidelines (hopefully good ones). (*) NASA does research on high performace computing (mostly aeronautics, and remote sensing stuff). (*) supposedly, private industry is supposed to be kept in the action and there is stuff in there about user fees where practical. [I kinda hope this is more for high-volume activities that the new net would make possible, not "small" things like ftping to some college). Supposedly, the net is supposed to be in operation by 1996. The cost estimate is just a hair under 2 billion dollars. Raul Rockwell
diamond@jit345.swstokyo.dec.com (Norman Diamond) (04/19/91)
In article <18APR91.19204942@uc780.umd.edu> cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu writes: >(Nation Research and Education Network) Yikes! >(*) supposedly, private industry is supposed to be kept in the action >and there is stuff in there about user fees where practical. That's a relief. I was just about to say, could you imagine if the telephone network were off-limits to private industry. Remember how the telephone industry was started by private entrepreneurs? (That was in the days before regulation to create a monopoly.) One almost wonders why private entrepreneurs can't create a high-speed data communications network. Why even Telenet and Tymnet don't do it.... -- Norman Diamond diamond@tkov50.enet.dec.com If this were the company's opinion, I wouldn't be allowed to post it.
tkevans@fallst.UUCP (Tim Evans) (04/19/91)
In <18APR91.19204942@uc780.umd.edu> cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu writes: >I happened to notice that the House passed its version of the High >Performance Computing Act today (H.R. 656, if I remember right). [ Description deleted ] >Supposedly, the net is supposed to be in operation by 1996. The cost >estimate is just a hair under 2 billion dollars. Yeah, but the real question is whether there's money in the budget to finance it. Congress frequently "authorizes" stuff, but financing it is a separate step, which sometimes doesn't get taken. -- UUCP: {rutgers|ames|uunet}!mimsy!woodb!fallst!tkevans INTERNET: tkevans%fallst@wb3ffv.ampr.org Tim Evans 2201 Brookhaven Ct, Fallston, MD 21047
cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu (04/20/91)
Yesterday I posted: >I happened to notice that the House passed its version of the High >Performance Computing Act today (H.R. 656, if I remember right). But today, when I checked on it, I found that it wasn't the House, but the house committee on science and technology. Which makes it quite a bit more iffy whether the thing gets passed at all. Raul Rockwell
lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell) (04/20/91)
In article <18APR91.19204942@uc780.umd.edu> cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu writes: >I happened to notice that the House passed its version of the High >Performance Computing Act today (H.R. 656, if I remember right). >That's the beastie that would establish a multi-gigabit long-haul >network (Nation Research and Education Network). This thing has been >kicking around for several congresses, but this time it seemes to be >flying through committees -- if I had to guess, I'd guess that it will >become law sometime this year. Fantastic. Now we can get copies of "The Jargon File" at light speeds. >:-) _ /| \'o.O' =(___)= U THPTH! ACKHH!
jjwebb@cruzio.UUCP (JJ Webb) (04/22/91)
In article <19APR91.20502708@uc780.umd.edu> cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu writes: >Yesterday I posted: > >>I happened to notice that the House passed its version of the High >>Performance Computing Act today (H.R. 656, if I remember right). > >Raul Rockwell What does this Bill do? What is its purpose? JJWebb