Computational Needs and Resources in Crystallography Proceedings of a Symposium, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 8, 1972. (1973) / Chapter Skim
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Summing Up: Robert B.K. Dewar, Allen C. Larson, R.A. Young
Summing Up: Robert B.K. Dewar, Allen C. Larson, R.A. Young
Pages 119-132
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From page 119... ...
Session V Summing Up Robert B.K. Dewar Allen C
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There seems to be a lot of information about possibilities of computer hardware and computer software, and that information is not being transferred effectively within the crystallographic computing community. One of the things I hope would come out of this meeting is perhaps not a specific recommendation, say some network to use or some gigantic computer to be built, but that continuing committees should look into the whole question of efficient utilization of resources.
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From page 121... ...
Although he has suggested that it may be possible to buy time on these facilities, it may be very difficult. From what has been said, computing networks like the ARPA Network will come into being, but from what I have heard listening to Division of Military Applications personnel, I seriously doubt that many of the government laboratories, particularly the two with the largest computing arrays, will get into providing external services.
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From page 122... ...
, by then giving some pros, cons, and alternatives, and by winding up with a recommendation. It seems now that the question may be stated as follows: With two demonstration projects and a feasibility study now under way with NSF money, with the ARPA Network now in operation and about to go commercial, with all three agencies we've heard from expressing strong interest in networks involving fewer major computer centers, the question is not whether we think network and remote user systems with capabil122
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From page 123... ...
The crystallographic community has a strong history of cooperative effort, both national and international. For example, the data compilations in the crystallographic field are widely recognized as outstanding examples of cooperative effort.
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While removal of the main crystallographic computing load from the local computing center might not be disastrous in itself, if the main computing load in several other fields were also transferred to a network, the reduction of support for and demand for services from the local center would certainly affect its development adversely. That would mean, ultimately, less computing capacity available to other faculty members and the professional staff.
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From page 125... ...
A related point is that once the protein people decide which really are the best algorithms for the refinement of their structures, one might even design special hardware to carry out these algorithms very specifically. Dewar: Once one has a network one no longer has a drive to move things around to all computers on the network and one can't afford to write highly specialized code for highly specialized hardware.
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From page 126... ...
If you put a computer onto a system of this sort, you must have the system designed with safeguards such that each and every individual computer can detect any attempt by the system or network to steal information. There should be no way for computer A to find out anything about the system or data or anything else at computer B without permission.
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From page 127... ...
There is a cogent argument for establishing a big computer designed solely for numerical processing, getting rid of all these problems that come from information handling. From this point of view, elim127
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From page 128... ...
. In fact, Larry Roberts, ARPA director of the ARPA Network, discusses the implications of radio transmission between a handheld transceiver and a computer/communications system at the 1972 Spring Joint Computer Conference, of which Proceedings will be distributed at the Conference (May 16-18, 1972)
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From page 129... ...
This is perhaps a basic research effort to develop and test the feasibility of using satellites for the communication of data. Fritichie: I'd like to ask the representatives of the government agencies, in view of their encouragement of large computing networks and centers, what is the attitude towards scientific data banks, such as for example a depository for crystal structure information.
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From page 130... ...
This went about as far toward making the loop tighter as anything one could go, and besides, one learned a little bit about the system, even if only about the practical details of the FORTRAN system that could be safely eliminated. Now that we are using a remote terminal, I regret that we do not get a compiler printout to tell us how to improve our own FORTRAN programs.
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From page 131... ...
Professor Dewar started out saying that crystallographers should be concerned about the social importance of their problems, but then he turned around to chide us for not putting our programs into specialized machine language at a specialized computing center. The emphasis has been so much on efficiency, as opposed to the thought that the networks and the national computing centers would perhaps enable the protein crystallographer to formulate and actually solve his problems.
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From page 132... ...
Larson: The ACA Computing Committee plan in their report to make a strong suggestion that people submit programs to the Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange. Hamilton: I was suggesting that the ACA Committee might give a few hours of good discussion to the topics we've raised today, perhaps to see whether the ACA wishes to stimulate any positive action on the part of the funding agencies.
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