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Computer
Security
Belgian
Formula Wins Competition to Become Encryption Standard
NIST
has named the Rijndael (pronounced Rhine-doll) data encryption
formula as its choice for the nation’s proposed new Advanced
Encryption Standard. The selection caps a three-year international
competition organized to develop a strong formula to protect sensitive
information in federal computer systems. Many businesses are expected
to use the AES as well.
The Rijndael developers are Belgian cryptographers Joan Daemen
of Proton World International and Vincent Rijmen of Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven. Rijndael was selected because it had the
best combination of security, performance, effi-ciency, ease of
implementation and flexibility.
Researchers from 12 different countries participated in the global
competition. NIST invited the worldwide cryptographic community
to “attack” the 15 candidate encryption formulas in
an effort to break the codes. After narrowing the field down to
five, NIST asked for intensified attacks on the finalists. Experts
also evaluated the encoding formulas for factors such as security,
speed and versatility.
The proposed selection of Rijndael as the AES will be announced
formally in the Federal Register in several months, and
NIST then will receive public comments on the draft Federal Information
Processing Standard for 90 days. When approved by the spring of
2001, the AES will be a public algorithm designed to protect sensitive
government information well into the 21st century. It will replace
the aging Data Encryption Standard, which NIST adopted in 1977.
For more information, go to www.nist.gov/aes.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
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Innovative Technologies
ATP
Launches 54 High-Impact R&D Projects
Citing
potential advances including new cancer treatments, more efficient
chemical processing and software to aid the elderly, NIST has
chosen 54 industrial research
projects for cost-shared support under the Advanced Technology
Program. The projects are valued at $274 million in private and
federal funding.
The Advanced Technology Program provides cost-shared funding to
industry for high-risk R&D projects with the potential to
spark important, broad-based economic benefits for the United
States. The awards are the result of the ATP’s 2000 competition,
which attracted over 400 proposals representing a total of $1.6
billion in research funding. The selected projects target a broad
array of technologies, including pharmaceutical design, tissue
engineering, industrial catalysts, energy generation and storage,
manufacturing technologies, electronics manufacturing, computer
software and electro-optics. The majority of the awards, 40, went
to small businesses, either for single-company projects or as
the lead company in an industry joint venture. At least 30 universities
are involved as joint-venture partners or subcontractors.
If carried through to completion, the 54 projects will be funded
at approximately $130 million from private industry, matched by
approxi-mately $144 million from the ATP. The awards are contingent
on the signing of formal agreements between NIST and the project
proposers.
A list of the latest ATP projects and participants may be found
at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/atp/2000project.htm.
More details are available at www.atp.nist.gov
or by faxing a request to NIST Public and Business Affairs at
(301) 926-1630.
Media
Contact:
Michael
Baum, (301) 975-2763
Information
Technology
New
Reader Soon May Give the Blind Access to E-Books
NIST
recently unveiled the second generation of a device that soon
may bring the benefits of electronic books to the blind.
The NIST Braille reader, which transforms the text of e-books
into the patterns of raised dots used by sightless persons to
read, also can be used for reviewing e-mail, browsing the World
Wide Web and other text-based applications. The latest version
of the reader incorporates several design improvements from the
prototype tested during the past year.
For example, many blind and visually impaired people prefer to
read Braille using several fingers, and the original design only
allowed for reading with a single finger. The new Braille reader
also is more compact and mechanically simpler than the original.
The NIST reader employs software to translate text into Braille,
and features variable speed that allows people to read faster
or slower, or to pause the device.
NIST estimates that the reader could be manufactured for about
$1,000. Braille readers currently on the market carry price tags
as high as $15,000. Much of the cost savings result from the fact
that the new NIST reader uses only three actuators—the mechanical
devices that form Braille letters. Commercial Braille readers
usually have hundreds of actuators.
NIST is seeking to transfer the technology to the private sector,
where it can be commercialized. For more information, contact
Victor
McCrary.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Administration
Two
Maryland Firms Team to Construct State-of-the-Art Lab
NIST
has awarded Clark/Gilford, a joint venture partnership between
The Clark Construction Group Inc., of Bethesda, Md., and Gilford
Corp., of Beltsville, Md., the $174 million contract to construct
one of the most technologically advanced buildings in the world,
the NIST
Advanced Measurement Laboratory, in Gaithersburg, Md.
When it is ready for occupancy in 2004, the 47,480-square-meter
(511,070-square-foot) AML will allow NIST to provide U.S. industry
and science with improved measurements and standards, and more
rapidly developed research advances. It will feature stringent
controls on particulate matter, temperature, vibration and humidity
that are unattainable in current NIST buildings. Such conditions
are vital for housing the institute’s most advanced metrology,
physics, chemistry, electronics, engineering and materials science
research, and will enable NIST to keep pace with rapid developments
in semiconductors, industrial robots, computers, pharmaceuticals
and emerging technologies requiring molecular and atomic-level
precision.
Clark/Gilford was selected as the prime contractor for the AML—the
largest single construction project in NIST history—because
the joint venture could provide the highest possible technical
expertise at the most cost-effective price. In addition, this
partnership between a large business, Clark Construction, and
a small disadvantaged business, Gilford, is committed to award
50 percent of the $125 million for subcontracts to small businesses.
Of this $62.5 million, $25 million in contracts will go to disadvantaged
firms and $12.5 million to women-owned businesses.
For more information on the AML project, including details on
the Clark/Gilford award and artist renditions of the planned facility,
go to www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/g00-173.htm.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Optoelectronics
New
Calibration Service for High-Power Laser Detectors
Who
says NIST doesn’t make house calls? In an innovative way
to calibrate high-power laser detectors, NIST has devised a measurement
system that can utilize a company’s laser on location at
the work site.
Multi-kilowatt high-power lasers are used for a variety of industrial
applications, including the processing of materials, cutting and
welding. Although detectors used with these laser systems need
measurement traceability, the high cost and size of these systems
previously limited NIST to only providing calibration services
at powers up to one kilowatt. Recently, Xiaoyu Li of NIST’s
Optoelectronics Division developed, tested and implemented
a system to perform calibrations at powers up to 10 kilowatts
or more at off-site laser locations.
Using a special transportable calibration system composed of various
optical components, a characterized transfer standard, and a compact,
stable water-flow system, the customer’s own high-power laser
can be used as the radiation source for detector calibrations.
In the first test of this system, Li recently performed successful
calibrations for a U.S. manufacturer of high-power laser systems
utilizing the company’s own multi-kilowatt carbon dioxide
laser source. This off-site system significantly extends NIST’s
high-power measurement capability, allows NIST to better support
the laser-based materials processing industry, and avoids any
need for NIST to purchase expensive, high-power lasers.
For more information, contact Xiaoyu
Li, NIST, MC 815.01, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan Boulder,
(303) 497-3246
Fiber
Optics
Symposium
on Optical Fiber Measurements Chronicled
Persons
interested in metrology for fiber-optic telecommunication will
want to get a copy of the Technical Digest, Symposium on Optical
Fiber Measurements, 2000. The 20th annual was held Sept. 26-28,
2000, at the NIST Laboratories in Boulder, Colo.
In their preface to the digest, the symposium chairs note that
after 20 years, “fiber-optic metrology is not only still
important, but we are seeing a rise in metrology needs for the
technologies resulting from fiber optics—components, integrated
optics and fiber systems.”
The majority of the papers in the digest fall into one of three
categories: dispersion, components and non-linear optics. Dispersion
is the largest category and contains two sessions on polarization
mode dispersion, and one session each on chromatic dispersion
and group-delay measurements on fiber Bragg gratings. Papers on
components include grating metrology as well as receiver and amplifier
characterization. The category of non-linear measurements includes
papers on measurements of non-linear coefficient and effective
area.
In all, the digest consists of 44 papers (nine invited and 35
contributed), with slightly more than half of the papers originating
outside the United States.
Copies of Technical Digest, Symposium on Optical Fiber Measurements,
2000 (NIST Special Publication 953), are available at no charge
while supplies last. Contact the NIST Optoelectronics Division
at (303) 497-5342.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan (Boulder),
(303) 497-3246
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