The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a program in high performance computing and communications with the following objectives: (1) accelerate the development and deployment of high-performance computing and networking technologies required for the National Information Infrastructure and (2) apply and test these technologies in a manufacturing environment. Building on its leadership in research, standards development, measurement technology and technology transfer in both information technology and manufacturing, NIST will collaborate with industry and other agencies to deploy and utilize a test facility to apply information technologies more quickly to manufacturing.
Program elements include research, development and standards activities related to Electronic Commerce, Distributed Multimedia Environments, Human-machine Interface, and systems integration for advanced manufacturing applications. Electronic Commerce enables the electronic exchange of business transactions and will greatly improve the ability to quickly and effectively develop new intellectual property and to bring new ideas and technologies to the worldwide marketplace through improved manufacturing techniques. Electronic data interchange will be extended to deal with new types of data, and interfaces will be developed with other standards to describe, access, and update data. The Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications program elements will develop, refine, test, and transfer advanced, computer-integrated, electronically-networked manufacturing technologies and associated applications using HPCC technologies, with emphasis on facilitating the use of standards in the areas of flexible computer integrated manufacturing and product data exchange. The program will support industrial environments including mechanical part production, apparel, electronics, construction, and chemical processing.
An Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Networking Testbed (AMSANT) will be established at NIST to enable research and development into advanced manufacturing computer systems and networking. In addition the AMSANT will (1) test high performance computer and networking hardware and software to determine their suitability for use within the U.S. manufacturing community; (2) assist industry in the development and implementation of voluntary consensus standards; and (3) serve as a demonstration site that industrial technology suppliers and users can use to identify and overcome technical and other barriers leading to the successful and cost-effective implementation of these systems. NIST will support research and development of advanced manufacturing systems and networking, and will make results of the program available to American industry through workshops, training materials, accessible electronic data repositories and pre-commercial prototype systems that can be installed by potential vendors in user facilities for test and evaluation. A Standards Development Environment will support the development of standards that must underlie the AMSANT facility. A major standards-based data exchange effort will be aimed at flexible, computer- integrated manufacturing to alleviate the lack of data exchange capability among computer aided design, computer-aided process, and computer-aided manufacturing activities.