Oregon Research Institute is a non-profit research organization with 20 behavioral scientists and 36 projects. The Institute supports a central computing facility for data processing and statistical analysis of research project data (95% of use by PHS projects). ORI's current computing environment consists of 17 Sun SPARCstations, 120 IBM compatibles, and 20 MacIntoshes, all networked via 10 Mbps Ethernet, using standard TCP/IP protocols. The primary purpose of the SpARCstations is statistical analyses on NIH-funded research grants. Eight of the SpARCstations have been configured to provide (and require) almost no network services, thus freeing almost all of their CPU and local disk space for data analyses. Even when so configured our most powerful machines are not able to perform some of the computations now required for the statistical analyses of our large complex data sets. The lack of more powerful, dedicated analysis servers has hampered the completion of data processing and analyses that are central to the dissemination and publication of project results. In the current revision and in response to the IRG's critique, we have reconceptualized and reconfigured our use of the proposed Sunsystems for statistical analyses within the framework of ORI's workgroups of scientifically related research. This reorganization provides better evidence for our need for the proposed system and how the proposed equipment will allow researchers with similar interests to collaborate and share valuable resources. Consequently, this proposal requests that the current facility be upgraded by adding one SPARCstation 10 for each of the six workgroups and one central server, a SPARCcenter 2000, to handle centralized application management, backup, and storage for a total of seven computers.
