WORKSHOP ON DIGITAL DATA STORAGE FOCUSED PROGRAM Announcement -- Advanced Technology Program: Workshop on Digital Data Storage Focused Program will be held on March 10, 1997 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center National Academies of Sciences and Engineering Irvine, CA Advanced Technology Program: The NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) provides competitive, cost-shared awards for industry to develop high-risk, enabling technologies with broad-based economic benefits. The ATP seeks to help industry fill the gap between basic research and product development, and to invest in technology that wouldn't be developed in a competitive time frame without government cost sharing. Along with General Competitions, which are open to proposals from all technical areas, the ATP has also funded Focused Programs, each with specific business and technical goals. The ATP will hold a one-day workshop for parties interested in digital data storage technologies on Monday, March 10, 1997, at the Beckman Center, Irvine, CA, starting at 9:30 a.m. and adjourning at approximately 3 p.m. Workshop on Digital Data Storage: To date, ATP has funded a portfolio of projects in the area of digital data storage. In previous General Competitions, ATP funded four projects in data storage and in 1995, the ATP funded five additional projects in the Digital Data Storage Focused Program competition. ATP's average contribution to a project is approximately one million dollars per year. The objective of the Digital Data Storage Focused Program is U.S. predominance in the high-performance digital data storage market over the next decade. The program will achieve its goal through industry-proposed, supported, and conducted research directed at the major components of data storage systems: the hardware typically associated with data storage such as disks and tapes, and the software needed for the efficient location and retrieval of the desired information. The business goals of the program are to reduce costs of R&D and reduce R&D cycle time through effective collaboration among data storage industry firms and between industry, universities, and government. R&D intensity and synergy are critical to success in the international marketplace. In addition, to remain competitive, it is necessary to bring advanced data storage technology into the marketplace faster. In markets where the life-cycle of products is already short (typically less than 18 months), continuous roll-out of new products with a technological edge is necessary to compete internationally. One way to achieve this goal is to build effective supplier-customer alliances and to pursue technology opportunities that help blur the boundaries between digital computer applications, where U.S. firms have been most successful against foreign competition, and consumer applications where U.S. firms have been less successful. It is expected that this business strategy will help meet the escalating needs of the U.S. consumer and industrial marketplaces for digital data storage capacity and performance and expand world market sharefor U.S. digital data storage products. Goals of the Workshop = Provide potential applicants with information on ATP and the application process = Inform the technical community about ATP projects in data storage technologies = Provide an opportunity for networking among companies and other organizations in these technology areas = Investigate methods to accelerate commercialization of technologies emerging from this research = Develop ideas for future competition concepts Additional details may be obtained by contacting the ATP Office: (800) ATP-FUND or (800) 287-3863; E-mail: atp@nist.gov; Fax: (301) 926-9524; or the ATP Web-site at http://www.atp.nist.gov. To offer a presentation or technology demonstration, contact Thomas Leedy, (301) 975-2410, E-mail: thomas.leedy@.nist.gov. Location: The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, 100 Academy Drive, Irvine, California. Located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, the Center is situated adjacent to the University of California at Irvine. Registration: The registration fee is $110 and includes workshop materials, coffee breaks, and lunch. All mailed or faxed registration forms must be received by Monday, February 24, 1997. Requests for cancellation and refund must be submitted to Tammie Grice in writing prior this date. For additional registration information, contact Tammie Grice, NIST, (301) 975-3883, Fax: (301) 948-2067, E-mail: tammie.grice@nist.gov. E-MAIL: Advanced Technology Program, atp.@nist.gov.

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