DOCT FY96 Q4 R&D Status Report

October 13, 1998

To: ARPA Agent

Charles Shank

ESC/DIB

Bldg. 1704 Arlington, VA 22203-1714

Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-2116

ESC/PKRD

Attn: Ms Carole Stephan

104 Barksdale St., Bldg 1520

Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-1806

(Letter of Transmittal Only)

National Archives and Records Administration / NWME

Attn: Robert Chadduck

8601 Adelphi Rd.

College Park, MD 20740

Re: R&D Status Report

National Archives and Records Administration

Distributed Object Computation Testbed

(Formerly Intelligent Metacomputing Testbed)

F19628-96-C-0020

San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)

To Program Manager:

During the period August 15 -September 1998, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) extension to the Distributed Object Computation Testbed has focused on development of a Research and Development Plan and Schedule. A first draft was provided to NARA on September 21, 1998 for comments. A second draft of the RPDS was provided on October 12, 1998. We expect to reach consensus by October 19, 1998.

NARA Project Status:

The NARA extension to the DOCT project is designed to explore the application of emerging high performance supercomputing technologies to support persistent object collections. The challenges are:

Demonstrate technology needed to manage ingestion of 1 million records per year.
Demonstrate scalability for supporting ingestion of 40 million records per year.
Demonstrate ability to handle heterogeneous data objects ranging from word processing documents, to electronic mail, to databases, to text collections.
Identify technologies needed to manage the migration of the archive to new software and hardware platforms as the commercially available systems evolve.

Discussions have been held with Robert Chadduck of NARA to identify potential data collections for use in the demonstration of a persistent archive. Two types of collections are being considered:

Large text collections with 1-2 million records to demonstrate ingestion rates. We are planning to use the USPTO patent data library assembled as part of DOCT. We also plan to use an E-mail collection that will be assembled at SDSC.
Heterogeneous collections including word processing, multimedia, database, and text documents.

SDSC will use technology originally acquired as part of the DOCT project to support this effort. The components include:

IBM HPSS archival storage system
IBM Universal Database / HPSS integrated system

Current Activities:

Multiple coordination meetings have been held at NARA, USPTO, and with vendors to identify commercially available technology for building the persistent archive. The meetings include:

NARA/USPTO coordination meetings

Date	Meeting	Site	Attendees
8/10-11	NARA Presentation	Wash, DC	Moore
9/21	NARA coordination	Washington, DC	Moore
9/21	USPTO coordination	Washington, DC	Moore

Technology presentations on persistent archives, digital library, and data support software

Date	Meeting	Site	Attendees
6/22-26	Digital Archive Conf.	College Park,Md	Moore
8/13-14	FedWeb Seminar	Wash, DC	Moore, Gupta, Baru
8/19-20	FedWeb	Wash, DC	Gupta
9/2-4	IRMCO/FedCIO conference	Virginia Beach, VA	Baru
9/21-23	GSA Roundtable	Washington, DC	Moore

Vendor interactions for advanced database, digital library software

Date	Meeting	Site	Attendees
9/15	IBM meeting	San Jose, CA	Moore, Baru

Collaborations on development of discrete event simulation software to model the performance of the persistent archive.

Date	Meeting	Site	Attendees
8/24-27	SES Training	Austin, TX	Schroeder
9/3	ASCI data flow workshop	Los Alamos, NM	Marciano

Publications:

On-line information about the DOCT project is available at the URLs: http://www.sdsc.edu/DOCT, and http://www.npaci.edu/DICE. A separate section on NARA related activities is being established.

Thank you,

Reagan Moore

SDSC

Attachments: Financial Status Table

Copies: ARPA Agent (2 copies)

NARA (2 copies)

ESC/PKRD (Transmittal Letter only)

DCAA San Diego North County office

Dr. Reagan Moore, SDSC

Ms. Bettye Washington, General Atomics

R&D STATUS REPORT

Program Financial Status

CUMULATIVE THROUGH September, 1998

$(000)

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE	PLANNED EXPEND	ACTUAL EXPEND	Remaining Funding	PERCENT COMPLETE	Budget Completion

NARA extension to DOCT	$300	$13	$287	4%	4%
TOTAL	$300	$13	$287	4%	4%

To: ESC/PKRD October 5, 1998

Attn: Ms Carole Stephan

104 Barksdale St., Bldg 1520

Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-1806

Subject: 4^th Quarter Reports, F19628-96-C-0020

Intelligent Metacomputing Testbed: Distributed Object Computation Testbed

NARA Supplement San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)

Dear Ms Stephan:

The quarterly status report for the period July 1998 - September 1998 for the National Archives and Records Administration extension to the Distributed Object Computation Testbed (DOCT) has been sent to the following individuals:

ARPA Agent

Charles Shank

ESC/DIB

Bldg. 1703, Rm. 114

5 Eglin Street