by
Lisa Thompson
Computing Research Association
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
RESEARCH AND RELATED ACTIVITIES
Within the amount provided to the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate [$312,670,000], $35,000,000 is to support individual and team research projects consistent with H.R. 2086, the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act, which, as introduced, authorizes a sizable increase for Information Technology (IT) research over the next five fiscal years. Budget constraints make it impossible for the Committee to provide the funding level as provided in H.R. 2086 or the full budget request for this new initiative without adversely disrupting funding in all other program areas. Nevertheless, the Committee believes $35,000,000 is a significant down-payment towards what it expects will be a long-term, comprehensive research program in this important field of computing and information technologies.
MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT
As outlined under the Research and Related Activities account, the Committee has included $35,000,000 for new research related activities consistent with the Information Technology Initiative (IT). The Committee, however, is not prepared at this time to commit resources to the construction of a single site, five teraflop computing facility as requested in the budget submission. The Committee has taken this action, without prejudice, due to budget constraints and other, higher priority pressures on available financial resources. The Committee expects to consider this request in future year budget submissions and would hope to have the benefit of any new IT research that may be available to assist during those forthcoming deliberations.
EXTENSIBLE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Department requested $70,000,000 for Extensible Information Systems. The Committee recommends $30,000,000, a decrease of $40,000,000. The Committee recognizes the importance of advanced computing capability for defense weapon systems and requirements. However, the Committee notes that DARPA is requesting funds for three new projects: deeply networked systems (AE-01), software for autonomous systems (AE-02) and software for embedded systems (AE-03). The Committee believes that all three new technology areas have promise but notes that DARPA is requesting a 15 percent increase in overall computing technology programs versus the prior year. The Committee therefore recommends a total of $30,000,000 for these new programs. This is a 5 percent increase over the prior year level for computing technology programs--including Next Generation Internet ($40 million), Computing Systems and Communications Technology ($323.8 million) and Extensible Information Systems ($30 million).
[No specific language concerning computing line-items] The following table lists program recommendations proposed by the Committee. These adjustments reflect the following committee actions: elimination of funds requested for programs which are lower priority, duplicative or not supported by firm requirements or out-year development and procurement funds; deletion of excess funds based on program delays or slow execution; addition of funds to reflect congressional priorities and to rectify shortfalls in the budget request for activities; and implementation of recommendations reported in the Senate bill authorizing programs and activities of the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2000.
| BUDGET | COMMITTEE | CHANGE | |
| NEXT GENERATION INTERNET | 40,000 | 31,000 | -9,000 |
| EXTENSIBLE INFORMATION SYSTEMS | 70,000 | 45,000 | -25,000 |
| COMPUTING SYSTEMS AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY | 322,874 | 317,874 | -5,000 |
The Committee recommendation for the Computational and Technology Research program is $143,000,000, the same amount as the current fiscal year, and a reduction of $53,875,000 from the budget request. The recommendation does not include funds for the Scientific Simulation Initiative (SSI) or the Next Generation Internet (NGI) programs. The Committee has had to cut existing programs and make hard choices and was unable to justify starting these new spending programs.
The budget justification for NGI failed to explain the need for a multi-million dollar government program at a time when hundreds of private companies are investing billions of dollars on hardware and software innovations. The Committee was informed that funds would be used to upgrade hardware at laboratories and universities and that the Department would study ways to improve the capabilities of the internet. The Committee notes that these activities have been funded in this account and that it is unnecessary to create a new program to continue these efforts. The budget justification for SSI failed to justify the need to establish a second supercomputing program in the Department of Energy. The Congress has been supportive of the ASCI program which the Department claimed would have benefits in addition to the defense purposes for which it was originally created. The ASCI program, for which Congress is providing more than $300,000,000 per year, seeks to build and operate massively parallel computers with a performance goal of 100 TeraOps by 2004. The proposed SSI program has a goal of building and operating a separate, yet similar, program dedicated exclusively to domestic purposes. At this time, the Committee cannot support this massively parallel proposal to manage and fund two separate supercomputing programs.
The Committee recognizes that the Department has re-classified some of its ongoing activities and therefore has not reduced the budget request by the $85,000,000 requested for these two `new' programs. The Committee appreciates the advantages of modeling and having computing capability to analyze complex problems. The Committee would like to work with the Department to get better answers to questions it has about this new proposal. (For example, the Department declined to answer direct questions about the outyear costs for this program.) The Committee looks forward to further discussions to identify a program that has mutually supportable budget and program plans.
Computational and technology research - The Committee recommendation does not include the $70,000,000 requested for the Department's participation in the Scientific Simulation Initiative.