GAO: Favoritism Found in DARPA Funding

GAO: Favoritism Found in DARPA Funding

[Gregory Aharonian]

    For a long time, I have been arguing that if the DoD really cared
about Ada, that it would use its clout to force its contractors to do
more to foster Ada acceptance in the non-Mandated world.  Some people
have argued back that the DoD never uses its clout in this way,  that 
defense procurement is an entirely honorable pursuit.

    Well, the May 28 issue of Science, page 1237, reports on a soon
to be released General Accounting Office report, in which the GAO
confirms industry allegations that in the past DARPA's research
support and purchasing policies have consistently favored two
supercomputer companies, Thinking Machines and Intel, to the extent
of essentially excluding their competitors.  GAO found that, of the
68 massively parallel machines that researchers have purchased with
DARPA support, nearly two-thirds were made by Intel - and all the
rest by Thinking Machines.
    Since the GAO launched an investigatin last year [how come the DoD
didn't launch its own investigation based on industry complaints?],
things have opened up for parallel computer procurements.

------

    So it does appear that the DoD does use its clout to shape market
behavior when it really believes in something, like parallel processing.

    Since the DoD isn't using its clout to get the Ada contractors to
get off their marketing duffs, I guess the DoD just doesn't care about
the health of Ada.  Admittedly, the DoD shouldn't use its clout in this
manner, but this is one area in which I wouldn't mind them acting more
socialist in their interventions.  (Hey, I admit I am a closest Marxist
and would love to see Groucho in charge of Ada policy).

-- 
**************************************************************************
 Greg Aharonian
 Source Translation & Optimization
 P.O. Box 404, Belmont, MA 02178