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hollings.txt
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1991-04-13
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STATEMENT OF SENATOR ERNEST P. HOLLINGS
HEARING ON S. 272, THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ACT
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1991
I am a cosponsor of S. 272, the High-Performance Computing Act,
because this is the kind of far-sighted legislation that should be a
priority here in the Senate. S. 272 addresses the long-term
economic, educational, and national security needs of this country.
We cannot just focus on the problems of today; we need to find
solutions to the problems of tomorrow as well.
The bill we are considering today will accelerate the
development of new technology and, just as importantly, speed up
the application of that new technology. By creating a National
Research and Education Network (NREN), this bill will link our
university labs to labs and factories in the private sector so they can
more effectively use the research done by university researchers.
Today the flow of information is truly global; the results of
research done at MIT now may be applied in a laboratory
somewhere else tomorrow. The NREN would help us take advantage
of that research. If our best research scientists are in constant,
instantaneous communication, through high-speed computer
networks, with the engineers and product designers in American
industry, we have a huge competitive edge.
The NREN and high-speed, commercial networks based on NREN
technology will not develop spontaneously. Federal leadership and
Federal investment are needed to spur the private sector to develop
these networks. S. 272 provides for this spur. It is an important
step toward exploiting the full potential of fiber optics in our national
telecommunications system.
The NREN and high-speed fiber optic networks are particularly
important to states like South Carolina. In South Carolina, we have
many colleges and universities which lack the resources available at
other research universities. The NREN will provide them with access
to facilities presently available only at places like Caltech and
Harvard. With the NREN, a researcher at the University of South
Carolina would have access to very fastest supercomputers available
anywhere. A researcher at Clemson would be able to connect to a
radio telescope halfway across the country and collect data and
compare his or her results with colleagues around the country.
The applications of the NREN in education are even more exciting.
With access to the NREN and the "Digital Libraries" of electronic
information connected to it, at the smallest colleges in South Carolina,
and many high schools, students would be able to access more
information from their computer keyboard than they could find in
their school libraries. The NREN would broaden the horizons of
students at small colleges, two-year technical colleges, historically
black colleges -- at every college in South Carolina.
This is important legislation, and I look forward to working with
Senator Gore and others on the Commerce Committee on the bill.