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The Interplay of. Funding. Policy. for infrastructure at NSF. Richard S. Hirsh. History - 1. Pre-history 1970s: Academic Computer Centers decline late 70s - early 80s: Studies of academic needs (Lax Report, December 1982) Start-up & establishemnt late 1983: NSF starts Centers Program
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The Interplay of Funding Policy for infrastructure at NSF Richard S. Hirsh
History - 1 • Pre-history • 1970s: Academic Computer Centers decline • late 70s - early 80s: Studies of academic needs (Lax Report, December 1982) • Start-up & establishemnt • late 1983: NSF starts Centers Program • June 1986: Five NSF Centers operational • First Renewal • May 1989: Four Centers renewed for five years
SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER PITTSBURGH SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER CRAY X-MP 48 CRAY X-MP 48 1987 NSF Supercomputer Centers Configuration NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUPERCOMPUTING APPLICATIONS CORNELL THEORY CENTER IBM 3090/400 CRAY X-MP 24
History - 2 • MetaCenter & Expansion • 1992: Metacenter concept announced • 1993: Blue Ribbon Panel on High Performance Computing • 1994: Metacenter Regional Alliances • 1995: Task Force on Future of NSF Supercomputer Centers • Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) • 1997: PACI Program initiated
Metacenter - 1995 Cray YMP Cray 2 TMC CM2 Convex C3 TMC CM5 NCSA Intel Paragon Cray C90 SDSC PSC Cray C90 Cray T3D CTC nCUBE2 TMC CM2 IBM SP-1 Kendall Square KSR1 IBM ES9000
History - 2 • MetaCenter & Expansion • 1992: Metacenter concept announced • 1993: Blue Ribbon Panel on High Performance Computing • 1994: Metacenter Regional Alliances • 1995: Task Force on Future of NSF Supercomputer Centers (Hayes Report) • Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) • 1997: PACI Program initiated
History - 3 • Terascale Computing Initiative • 1999: Workshops on need for high-end (Terascale) systems • 2000: TCS • 2001: DTF (TeraGrid) • 2003: ETF • Cyberinfrastructure
Lessons Learned from the NSF Experience • Community input is essential for policy formation • Always expect that the architects of the infrastructure will expand your original vision – Don’t be prescriptive • As the primary supporter NSF could create guidelines for its grantees; the initial goals for participants were uniformly NSF’s – we were not “federating” already existing facilities