New York Gov. George E. Pataki has made a major commitment for the state to share in the purchase of the next generation of supercomputers and to provide increased operating support for the Cornell Theory Center. The commitment is part of a package Cornell has proposed to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for continued designation as one of the national sites for supercomputing.

The state would contribute $15 million toward IBM's next generation of supercomputers, as well as $6 million over five years in operating expenses, if the federal government retains the Theory Center as one of its national supercomputing centers, the governor said.

"New York State is prepared to provide major financial support for this new project led by the Theory Center," Pataki wrote in an April 16 letter to Neal Lane, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF is transforming its supercomputer centers program into a Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) initiative. The Theory Center is responding to PACI by leading a proposal for a strong alliance of academic institutions and government laboratories. Several of the Theory Center's partners are in New York State.

Pataki wrote: "Information industries in all forms are a vital and very significant part of New York State's economy. We see this segment as an important growth area and one in which, even in times of tight state budgets, we must invest. The academic and industrial enterprises of our state provide some of the most demanding consumers of high performance computing. At the same time, New York produces the world's most powerful systems."

The governor also wrote that Cornell's partnership with IBM was a key aspect of state support, citing it as "one of the single best examples of what is possible when our colleges and universities work closely with private industry." Malvin H. Kalos, director of the Theory Center, said: "I am immensely pleased with the Governor's support. It validates the importance of the Theory Center to New York State: through our partnership with IBM, through collaborations with other industries large and small, and not least, through the support of academic research."

The request for the governor's support came from President Hunter Rawlings. Henrik N. Dullea, Cornell vice president for university relations, worked with James G. Natoli, director of state operations in the governor's office. In a meeting last fall put together by Dullea, Cornell representatives met with Natoli and Geoff Flynn, the governor's senior program associate for education, and Robert M. Greenberg, IBM vice president of development, PowerParallel Systems, to discuss the importance of state support.

"This is an extraordinarily important program for New York state," Dullea told Natoli. "Not only will it bring more than $100 million in federal funding over the next five years if we are successful, it also will continue to be of strategic importance for our corporate partners." He added that almost half the users of Theory Center resources are in New York.

Dullea said that in addition to the governor's support, staff in the governor's Washington, D.C., office would help inform the state's congressional delegation about the need for continued support of the Theory Center.

New York currently funds $800,000 per year in operating costs to the Theory Center through the New York State Urban Development Corp., and in 1992 funded $12.3 million toward the purchase of IBM's SP supercomputers -- consisting of 512 processors that can run in parallel. Under the new plan that the governor endorses, state operating support would increase to about $1.2 million annually for five years.

The Cornell Theory Center is one of four high-performance computing and communications centers supported by the National Science Foundation. Activities of the center also also funded by New York State, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health, IBM and other members of its Corporate Partnership Program.