General Atomics and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) have
ended their 11-year corporate partnership at the San Diego Supercomputer
Center (SDSC).

  Citing difference over the direction of UCSD's proposal for the Center's
future, General Atomics last week informed UCSD of plans to submit, in
competition with UCSD, its own proposal to participate in the National
Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure,
slated to begin in fiscal 1998.

LEADERSHIP & VISION
  Representatives from both sides attribute the dissolution of the
partnership to an inability to agree on their respective roles in the future
of supercomputing.

  "It was a question of leadership in the proposal," Linden Blue, vice
chairman of General Atomics, explained during an interview with HPCwire.
"General Atomics wanted an equal partnership with the university. But we
could not resolve the question of our respective roles. So we had to go our
separate ways."

  The choice of a Center director and intellectual property rights also
contributed to the decision to proceed independently.

  "The two things we couldn't come to closure on was our choice of director
and intellectual properties," Robert Dynes, UCSD's senior vice chancellor for
academic affairs is quoted as having told the San Diego Union Tribune.

  Under its current agreement with General Atomics, UCSD has no claim for
right to new technologies developed at the Center.

  SDSC, located at UCSD, was originally developed and then subsequently
administered by General Atomics. It was sponsored by the NSF, the University,
the State of California, and other agencies and private organizations as
well. The Center provides computing resources for the military, universities
and government agencies.

  Under the current partnership, the Center's staff is employed by General
Atomics, while the scientists are employed by UCSD. Both UCSD and General
Atomics say they will continue to work together until the current NSF program
expires in September 1997. Talks between the organizations are expected to
continue, and representatives from both sides say it is possible that General
Atomics and UCSD eventually with work together when final proposals are
submitted.

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR UCSD
  Sid Karin, founding director of SDSC, will serve as director of UCSD's
new thrust.

  "This enterprise offers to me an exciting new challenge to work with the
full support of the University of California system, partnering with other
major research institutions in leading the nation into a new era of
high-performance computing," said Karin, who resigned as SDSC director last
November. "I am thrilled by this opportunity."

  Karin was recently replaced by an Acting Director, N. Douglas Pewitt, who
had served in a number of senior government positions, including the Office
of Management and Budget, DOE (Department of Energy) and the Office of
Science and Technology Policy, as well as SAIC (Science Applications
International Corp.) (See HPCwire article 8330, "ACTING DIRECTOR APPOINTED TO

GUIDE SDSC THROUGH KARIN'S DEPARTURE", 03.01.96.)

  According to a press release issued by UCSD, the University's proposal will
strengthen the role played by the San Diego campus in the future of
computational science by creating a physical and intellectual partnership
between UCSD and some of the leading computational research centers in the
nation.

  Dynes noted that the UCSD-led proposal would serve as a model for advancing
the nation's computational resources in support of scientific research and
economic progress. Among other things, that means having the ability to
combine and balance the power of sometimes vastly different computational
resources over long distance networks, and moving huge amounts of data among
several sites for rapid viewing and manipulation.

  In an interview with HPCwire, Karin stated that he believes the
University's proposal to the NSF is the strongest proposal that's going to
come out of any university or institution in this competition.

  "I think we're going to win, and I'm excited about submitting the proposal
and going forward after we win, in a new environment," he said. "My role is
to define the successor entity, which has nothing to do with who's running
the existing center...NSF has essentially implemented the recommendations of
the Hayes Task Force. And those recommendations call for a new program. And
I'm now architecting a new program to be responsive to that RFP (Request For
Proposals)."

  Although Karin observed that the program would be strengthened if GA were
included, he stated: "I'm not a party to those negotiations, nor do I want to
be. I've got an interesting job. And I'm doing it under the leadership of
UCSD, which I believe is appropriate."

  "It would be preferable to me if GA were supporting the UCSD effort, no
question about it," he said. "On the other hand, we're going to win. That's
my plan, and I'm quite confident about it; I feel very good about it."

  Under Karin's leadership, UCSD has organized a supercomputer consortium
that includes all nine University of California campuses, three national
laboratories and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

  According to the UCSD press release, the new entity will be charged with
aiding research and experimentation with new hardware and software --
including appropriate support technologies such as visualization and mass
storage -- providing resources for applications and applications development
for scalable high-end systems, creating access to unique experimental systems
and facilities and promoting education and training in the use of
computational resources.

GENERAL ATOMICS
  General Atomics declined to offer specifics of its proposal or elaborate on
its visions for the Center, but was confident of its position.

  "The Supercomputer Center is an enormously important resource," Blue
observed, "In fact, it's one of the two finest centers in the nation. So
it's important to come up with a winning proposal. And we feel ours has an
excellent chance of winning."

A STATEMENT FROM THE NSF
  While General Atomics and UCSD compete for future NSF supercomputing
project funding, the Center continues under General Atomics management as
outlined in its cooperative agreement with the NSF, and no changes are
expected until 1997.

   The following statement was issued by NSF Public Affairs Officer Beth
Gaston:

  "We here at NSF are aware of the situation at San Diego Supercomputer
Center. Our cooperative agreement with GA for management of SDSC continues
for another 18 months. We have approved Doug Pewitt as an interim center
director, while GA conducts a national search for a new project director. We
are also in the process of convening a review team to ensure that management
is such at the center that service to the R+E community can be provided.

  "We have an obligation to the scientific and engineering community to
provide a continuity of service -- to ensure that supercomputing resources
are maintained. We also have an obligation to taxpayers to ensure that tax
dollars are wisely spent. Our partner in the cooperative agreement is (and
has been since the inception of the center) GA -- and we expect to work with
them to meet these goals.

  "We have confirmed with GA that they may submit their own proposal for the
new Partnerships program. We will review all incoming proposals -- with a
peer review system -- to ensure that the best partnership proposals receive
NSF funding."

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Dianna Husum, editorial director, TGC, contributed to this article.