High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (original) (raw)

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High Performance Computing Act of 1991

Great Seal of the United States
Long title An Act to provide for a coordinated Federal program to ensure continued United States leadership in high-performance computing.
Acronyms (colloquial) HPCA
Nicknames Gore Bill
Enacted by the 102nd United States Congress
Effective December 9, 1991
Citations
Public law 102-194
Statutes at Large 105 Stat. 1594
Codification
Titles amended 15 U.S.C.: Commerce and Trade
U.S.C. sections created 15 U.S.C. ch. 81 § 5501
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 272 by Al Gore (D-TN) on January 24, 1991Committee consideration by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee and Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and SpacePassed the Senate on September 11, 1991 (passed)Passed the House on November 20, 1991 (passed) with amendmentSenate agreed to House amendment on November 22, 1991 (agreed)Signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on December 9, 1991
Internet history timeline
Early research and development: 1960–4 (1960–4): RAND networking concepts developed 1962–4 (1962–4): ARPA networking ideas 1965 (1965): NPL network concepts conceived 1966 (1966): Merit Network founded 1967 (1967): ARPANET planning begins 1967 (1967): Symposium on Operating Systems Principles 1969 (1969): NPL followed by the ARPANET carry their first packets 1970 (1970): Network Information Center (NIC) 1971 (1971): Tymnet switched-circuit network 1972 (1972): Merit Network's packet-switched network operational 1972 (1972): Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) established 1973 (1973): CYCLADES network demonstrated 1973 (1973): PARC Universal Packet development begins 1974 (1974): Transmission Control Program specification published 1975 (1975): Telenet commercial packet-switched network 1976 (1976): X.25 protocol approved and deployed on public data networks 1978 (1978): Minitel introduced 1979 (1979): Internet Activities Board (IAB) 1980 (1980): USENET news using UUCP 1980 (1980): Ethernet standard introduced 1981 (1981): BITNET established Merging the networks and creating the Internet: 1981 (1981): Computer Science Network (CSNET) 1982 (1982): TCP/IP protocol suite formalized 1982 (1982): Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) 1983 (1983): Domain Name System (DNS) 1983 (1983): MILNET split off from ARPANET 1984 (1984): OSI Reference Model released 1985 (1985): First .COM domain name registered 1986 (1986): NSFNET with 56 kbit/s links 1986 (1986): Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 1987 (1987): UUNET founded 1988 (1988): NSFNET upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s (T1) 1988 (1988): Morris worm 1988 (1988): Complete Internet protocol suite 1989 (1989): Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) 1989 (1989): PSINet founded, allows commercial traffic 1989 (1989): Federal Internet Exchanges (FIX East|FIXes) 1990 (1990): GOSIP (without TCP/IP) 1990 (1990): ARPANET decommissioned 1990 (1990): Advanced Network and Services (ANS) 1990 (1990): UUNET/Alternet allows commercial traffic 1990 (1990): Archie search engine 1991 (1991): Wide area information server (WAIS) 1991 (1991): Gopher 1991 (1991): Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) 1991 (1991): ANS CO+RE allows commercial traffic 1991 (1991): World Wide Web (WWW) 1992 (1992): NSFNET upgraded to 45 Mbit/s (T3) 1992 (1992): Internet Society (ISOC) established 1993 (1993): Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) 1993 (1993): InterNIC established 1993 (1993): AOL added USENET access 1993 (1993): Mosaic web browser released 1994 (1994): Full text web search engines 1994 (1994): North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) established Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet: 1995 (1995): New Internet architecture with commercial ISPs connected at NAPs 1995 (1995): NSFNET decommissioned 1995 (1995): GOSIP updated to allow TCP/IP 1995 (1995): very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) 1995 (1995): IPv6 proposed 1996 (1996): AOL changes pricing model from hourly to monthly 1998 (1998): Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 1999 (1999): IEEE 802.11b wireless networking 1999 (1999): Internet2/Abilene Network 1999 (1999): vBNS+ allows broader access 2000 (2000): Dot-com bubble bursts 2001 (2001): New top-level domain names activated 2001 (2001): Code Red I, Code Red II, and Nimda worms 2003 (2003): UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) phase I 2003 (2003): National LambdaRail founded 2004 (2004): UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) 2005 (2005): UN WSIS phase II 2006 (2006): First meeting of the Internet Governance Forum 2010 (2010): First internationalized country code top-level domains registered 2012 (2012): ICANN begins accepting applications for new generic top-level domain names 2013 (2013): Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation 2014 (2014): NetMundial international Internet governance proposal 2016 (2016): ICANN contract with U.S. Dept. of Commerce ends, IANA oversight passes to the global Internet community on October 1st Examples of Internet services: 1989 (1989): AOL dial-up service provider, email, instant messaging, and web browser 1990 (1990): IMDb Internet movie database 1994 (1994): Yahoo! web directory 1995 (1995): Amazon online retailer 1995 (1995): eBay online auction and shopping 1995 (1995): Craigslist classified advertisements 1995 (1995): AltaVista search engine 1996 (1996): Outlook (formerly Hotmail) free web-based e-mail 1996 (1996): RankDex search engine 1997 (1997): Google Search 1997 (1997): Babel Fish automatic translation 1998 (1998): Yahoo Groups (formerly Yahoo! Clubs) 1998 (1998): PayPal Internet payment system 1998 (1998): Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator 1999 (1999): 2ch Anonymous textboard 1999 (1999): i-mode mobile internet service 1999 (1999): Napster peer-to-peer file sharing 2000 (2000): Baidu search engine 2001 (2001): 2chan Anonymous imageboard 2001 (2001): BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing 2001 (2001): Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2003 (2003): LinkedIn business networking 2003 (2003): Myspace social networking site 2003 (2003): Skype Internet voice calls 2003 (2003): iTunes Store 2003 (2003): 4chan Anonymous imageboard 2003 (2003): The Pirate Bay, torrent file host 2004 (2004): Facebook social networking site 2004 (2004): Podcast media file series 2004 (2004): Flickr image hosting 2005 (2005): YouTube video sharing 2005 (2005): Reddit link voting 2005 (2005): Google Earth virtual globe 2006 (2006): Twitter microblogging 2007 (2007): WikiLeaks anonymous news and information leaks 2007 (2007): Google Street View 2007 (2007): Kindle, e-reader and virtual bookshop 2008 (2008): Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) 2008 (2008): Dropbox cloud-based file hosting 2008 (2008): Encyclopedia of Life, a collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all living species 2008 (2008): Spotify, a DRM-based music streaming service 2009 (2009): Bing search engine 2009 (2009): Google Docs, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service 2009 (2009): Kickstarter, a threshold pledge system 2009 (2009): Bitcoin, a digital currency 2010 (2010): Instagram, photo sharing and social networking 2011 (2011): Google+, social networking 2011 (2011): Snapchat, photo sharing 2012 (2012): Coursera, massive open online courses 2016 (2016): TikTok, video sharing and social networking

The High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (HPCA) is an Act of Congress promulgated in the 102nd United States Congress as (Pub.L. 102–194) on December 9, 1991. Often referred to as the Gore Bill,[1] it was created and introduced by then Senator Al Gore, and led to the development of the National Information Infrastructure and the funding of the National Research and Education Network (NREN).[1][2][3]

The funding allocation was approximately $600 million.[4]

The act built on prior U.S. efforts of developing a national networking infrastructure, starting with the technological foundation of the ARPANET in the 1960s and continuing through the funding of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet) in the 1980s. The renewed effort became known in popular language as building the Information superhighway.[2][5] It also included the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative and spurred many significant technological developments, such as the Mosaic web browser,[6] and the creation of a high-speed fiber optic computer network.

Development and passage

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Senator Al Gore developed the Act[1] after hearing the 1988 report Toward a National Research Network[7] submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science Leonard Kleinrock, one of the creators of the ARPANET, which is regarded as the earliest precursor network of the Internet.[8]

The bill was enacted on December 9, 1991, and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII)[9] which Gore referred to as the "Information superhighway". President George H. W. Bush predicted that the Act would help "unlock the secrets of DNA," open up foreign markets to free trade, and a promise of cooperation between government, academia, and industry.[10]

The Gore Bill helped fund the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, where a team of programmers, including Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, created the Mosaic Web browser[6][11] in 1993, the commercial Internet's technological springboard credited as beginning the Internet boom of the 1990s. Andreessen later remarked that 'If it had been left to private industry, it wouldn't have happened ... at least, not until years later.' [12]

Gore reiterated the role of government financing in American success in a 1996 speech when he, as vice president, said, "That's how it has worked in America. Government has supplied the initial flicker—and individuals and companies have provided the creativity and innovation that kindled that spark into a blaze of progress and productivity that's the envy of the world."[13]

Following a 1999 CNN interview, then-Vice President Gore became the subject of some controversy and ridicule when his claim that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet"[14] was widely quoted out of context or misquoted, with comedians and the popular media taking his expression as a claim that he had personally invented the Internet.[15][16] George W. Bush, Gore's opponent in the 2000 presidential election, mocked Gore's claim during his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention that year.[17]

The meaning of the statement, which referred to his legislative support of key technologies in the development of the Internet, was widely reaffirmed by notable Internet pioneers, such as Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, who stated, "No one in public life has been more intellectually engaged in helping to create the climate for a thriving Internet than the Vice President".[18]

President's Information Technology Advisory Committee

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PITAC was started in 1991 under the High Performance Computing Act of 1991. On May 28, 2003, President George W. Bush extended the committee.[19]

  1. ^ a b c Computer History Museum – Exhibits – Internet History – 1990s
  2. ^ a b Information Superhighway Envisioned-Legislation Pending to Establish National Computer Network Archived 2006-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ NREN | Technology Resources
  4. ^ "Al Gore | Internet Hall of Fame". internethalloffame.org. Retrieved 2021-06-25.
  5. ^ "FCLJ Vol 46, No. 3 – Blake and Tiedrich". Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  6. ^ a b NCSA Mosaic – September 10, 1993 Demo
  7. ^ Kleinrock, Leonard; Kahn, Bob; Clark, David; et al. (1988). Toward a National Research Network. doi:10.17226/10334. ISBN 978-0-309-58125-7. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  8. ^ Kleinrock, Leonard; Cerf, Vint; Kahn, Bob; et al. (2003-12-10). "A Brief History of the Internet". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  9. ^ Chapman, Gary; Rotenberg, Marc (1993). "The National Information Infrastructure:A Public Interest Opportunity". Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  10. ^ Bush, George H.W. (9 December 1991). "Remarks on Signing the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991". bushlibrary.tamu.edu. George Bush Presidential Library. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
  11. ^ "Mosaic – The First Global Web Browser". livinginternet.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  12. ^ Perine, Keith (23 October 2000). "The Early Adopter – Al Gore and the Internet – Government Activity". findarticles.com. The Industry Standard. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  13. ^ "Vice President Al Gore's ENIAC Anniversary Speech". Cs.washington.edu. February 14, 1996. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
  14. ^ "Transcript: Vice President Gore on CNN's 'Late Edition'". CNN. CNN. 9 March 1999. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  15. ^ "Internet of Lies". Snopes.com. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  16. ^ Kessler, Glenn (4 November 2013). "A cautionary tale for politicians: Al Gore and the 'invention' of the Internet". Washington Post - Fact Checker. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  17. ^ Transcript of George W. Bush's Acceptance Speech. ABC News. 2000-08-04. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  18. ^ Kahn, Bob; Cerf, Vint; et al. (2000-09-29). "Al Gore and the Internet". Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  19. ^ Office of the Press Secretary (May 30, 2003). "Extension of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology". Federal Register. Washington, D.C.: Federal Government of the United States. Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2017. Alt URL

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