wy SUL 28 1970

July 24, 1970

Norman Nielsen

Ron Jamtgaard

Meeting with Bill Raub on July 20, 1970

Last Monday Bill Raub visited Stanford in order to obtain a critique of the
PROPHET Project. I spent the evening with Bill discussing several aspects

of ACME planning. Several significant pieces of information were put out

by Bill in the course of the evening. There follows a recap of our discussion.

Budget for ACME: Bill cannot give us the amount requested in our budget pro-
posal for the coming fiscal year. He has a few questions concerning the man-
power level presented in the budget requeat. These will be resolved by early
next week. At this time he expects to be able to give us the Research Council
recommended level of $750,000 initially. At some time later in the year, he
hopes to be able to increase the budget ceiling, but this action would follow
a review by Research Council. He has asked that ACME provide him with addi-
tional information concerning its long range financial planning by the middle
of September. With this information he can prepare to meet with the Research
Council to discuss a phasing out of NIH support for the operational aspects
of ACME.

NIH Support of ACME Operations: Bill Raub stated that it was time to negotiate
a termination date for the direct subsidy of ACME operations. He felt that it
would be possible on a conti&nuing basis to support same level of research ac-
tivity for the ACME staff. The fee-for-service concept should lead to a period
of full cost recovery from user fees. He has asked us to prepare a long range
plan indicating when we feel that crossover point might occur. He is fully
willing at this point to consider adding 12 or 18 months to the planned period
of support for ACME operations. In the near term he would like to resblve a
specific date beyond which time ACME should not anticipate further direct
subsidy of operations.

Signa 5: NIH received many inquiries concerning the Sigma 5. After a prilim-
inary review of informal proposals, about.15 formal proposals were invited,

Of that number, five are still receiving consideration and Stanford is among
them. We are not at the top of the list of five potential receivers of the
Sigma 5 System. Two primary reasons Given for this were questionable finan-
clal resources and lack of a quantum Jump in the style of computing made avail-
able to the user community as a result of adding a Sigma 5. Bill indicated
that someone from Stanford would be invited to some back to Washington in the
near term to answer technical questions on the proposal. It is still possible
that the machine could be given to Stanford.

Research Policy for Special Research Resources Branch: Bill Raub indicated
an intent on his part to increase the number of SRRB Grants for research
To: Norman Nielsen Page 2

From: Ron Jamtgaard

activity; decrease the average dollard per grant; and reduce the number and
period of long term "multi-year" commitments. I pointed out the need for
some continuing direct support for hardware without which most schools can-
not launch gajor projects. I believe that Bill Raub finds very little
flexibility with his budget resources due to prior commitments to a few
major facilities around the country. He sees a need for a more dynamic pro-
gram in his branch.

Potential Research Contract between SRRB and ACME: Bill Raub has some Research
Contract funds available for the coming year. He may invite proposals for re-
search contracts involving interface and interaction between large and small
machines. He is very interested in the work presently being handled by Lee
Hundley on small machine assemblers under PL/ACME. In the near term we are to
consider the desirability of a joint research contract involving at least two
medical schools in addition to Stanford, plus the ACME staff. If such a multi-
school joint contract arrangement appears desirable, Raub would like to hear
more from us.

Bill Raub continues to praise ACME highly. He feels that much has bee accom-
plished here with the funds provided by his office.

Budget Cutting in Research Proposal Computing Funds: Raub would Like to hear
of any instance in which an NIH agency cuts the computing budget in a new grant
where the initial estimel® appeared to be realistic from our point of view. He
is anxious to contact other agencies in order to hkép preserve funds requested
for computing.

ce: J. Lederberg
B. Langle
L. Hundley