Finding Aid for National Center for Supercomputing Applications Subject File, 1978-2000 | University of Illinois Archives

Title: National Center for Supercomputing Applications Subject File, 1978-2000

ID: 7/5/1

Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Other Creators: Smarr, Larry

Extent: 28.3 cubic feet

Arrangement: By subject and alphabetically thereunder. Budgets are arranged chronologically.

Date Acquired: 06/24/2005

Subjects: Argonne National Laboratory, Beckman Institute, Caterpillar Tractor Company, Defense, United States Department of, International Business Machines (IBM), Lobbying, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA), National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Supercomputers

Formats/Genres: Papers

National Center for Supercomputing Applications Subject File (1978-2000) includes materials related to the operations of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, including budgets (1984-99), memos (1985-91), organizational and space plans (1983-91), committee minutes (1984-2000), student and staff personnel files (1986-99), correspondence and purchasing agreements with technology companies, including Cray Computing, IBM, Apple Computers, AT&T, and Apollo Computer, Inc. (1984-99), correspondence with other national supercomputing centers (1986-98) including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, files of the Industrial Program (1987-97), which included the companies Allstate Insurance Co., American Airlines, Caterpillar Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, Ford Motor Co., J.P. Morgan, McDonnell Douglas, Monsanto, Eastman Kodak Company, Eli Lilly and Company,Sears, Roebuck & Co., Shell Oil Company, Tribune Company, and United Technologies Corporation, a subject file on the NCSA's relationship with the University of Illinois administration (1984-97), applications to the Cray Research and Development Grant Program (1985-91), media contacts and correspondence (1983-98) correspondence with and testimony for federal and state agencies (1984-96) including members of Congress, the National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Department of Defense, NCSA staff publications (1986-92), and a history of the NCSA (1985-91).

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) was created in February, 1985, to provide supercomputers to address problems such as predicting tornadoes and wind sheers, analyzing urban traffic patterns and studying the fundamental interactions of atomic particles.¹

The Center for Supercomputer Research and Development was established in December, 1984, to build the "Cedar" supercomputer, a high-performance, large-scale multiprocessing computer destined to allow the pursuit of research in fields such as meteorology, physics, astronomy and the computer-aided design of computer circuits.²

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications' work stations will be used for communications, high quality two- and three-dimensional color graphics, advanced scientific TEXT processing, symbolic manipulation, artificial intelligence and general program development and data analysis.³

Besides forecasting the weather, supercomputers can be used to simulate the origins of the universe and to design cars and aircraft.⁴

The supercomputers' artificial intelligence could monitor nuclear plants to help prevent major accidents.⁵

1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau News

2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau News

3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau News, October 14, 1985, p. 2.

4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau News, February 3, 1986, p. 3.

5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau News, June 16, 1986, p. 1.

Argonne National Laboratory
Beckman Institute
Caterpillar Tractor Company
Defense, United States Department of
International Business Machines (IBM)
Lobbying
Los Alamos National Laboratory
National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Supercomputers

Repository: University of Illinois Archives

Other Note: 61 pages

URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/0705001.pdf

PDF finding aid for National Center for Supercomputing Applications Subject File (7/5/1)