Congress, in the Conference Report accompanying the FY 88 Appropriations Act, recommended that NSF use $1.5M "for proposals to use computing capabilities not available at national supercomputer centers". It was further stated that "all research directorates should be invloved in funding supercomputer time required as part of research". In accordance with this direction, all the program directors at the Foundation were notified in mid-February 1988 that such computer time would be supported per the above Conference Committee recommendation, and that they should respond by 4/1 with any requests for such time. By this cut-off date twenty three requests for time were received, all for use of the Cray 2 at the Minnesota Supercomputer Center (MSC). The total requests exceeded the allocated resources available so some reduction of the request total was negotiated with the individual PD's. The research directorates involved in this grant are BBS, CISE, ENG, GEO, and MPS. The total request is for 2000 hours of computer time, which, at the rate quoted by MSC, equals the $1.5M recommended by Congress.
