NSF PR 00-35 - May 22, 2000
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NSF Awards High Performance Connections to Ten Institutions
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded
high performance network connections for ten additional
universities, bringing the total number of institutions
assisted through such grants to 177. They will join
previous awardees in connecting to a national grid
of research networks that operate at speeds up to
2.4 billion bits per second.
The two-year awards average $350,000, which will be
matched at least equally by each recipient. Awardees
may use the funds to connect with the vBNS (very high
performance Backbone Network System), the Internet2
consortium's Abilene network or another national research
network. NSF and MCI Worldcom recently announced an
agreement that will keep vBNS in operation through
March 2003.
Since 1995 the NSF High Performance Connections (HPC)
program has given scientists and engineers better
access to research facilities across the U.S., including
those maintained by NSF through its Partnerships for
Advanced Computational Infrastructure program (PACI).
HPC and PACI are part of the NSF Directorate for Computer
and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).
Among the latest recipients are two universities (Idaho
State and Mississippi's Jackson State) in EPSCoR states,
which are defined as those that have historically
received fewer federal research funds. EPSCoR stands
for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research. Jackson State and another awardee (the University
of Texas at El Paso) are classified as Minority Serving
Institutions (MSI).
NSF's award to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology (NMIMT) is an example of how HPC improves
access to research facilities. The NMIMT network link
will let scientists across the world view real-time
data from the Very Large Array (VLA), an advanced
telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico. The connection
will also improve access to archived data from the
VLA and the Very Long Baseline Array, a system of
ten radio telescopes that work together as the world's
largest dedicated, full-time instrument for astronomy.
The latest institutions to be connected through the
HPC program are:
- Binghamton University (State University of New
York)
- California State University at Hayward
- Idaho State University
- Jackson State University (Mississippi)
- New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
- Rockefeller University (New York)
- State University of New York at Stony Brook
- University of Texas at El Paso
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Wright State University (Ohio)
For information about CISE, see: http://www.nsf.gov/home/cise/
For a list of all HPC awardees, see: http://www.interact.nsf.gov/CISE/ASC/CISEWeb.nsf/program_ani
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