U.S. Code > Title 15 Commerce and Trade > CHAPTER 81—HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (§§ 5501—5543) > SUBCHAPTER II—AGENCY ACTIVITIES (§§ 5521—5528) > § 5524. Department of Commerce activities

§ 5524. Department of Commerce activities

(a) General responsibilities
As part of the Program described in subchapter I of this chapter—
(1) the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall—
(A) conduct basic and applied measurement research needed to support various high-performance computing systems and networks;
(B) develop and propose standards and guidelines, and develop measurement techniques and test methods, for the interoperability of high-performance computing systems in networks and for common user interfaces to systems; and
(C) be responsible for developing benchmark tests and standards for high-performance computing systems and software; and
(2) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall conduct basic and applied research in weather prediction and ocean sciences, particularly in development of new forecast models, in computational fluid dynamics, and in the incorporation of evolving computer architectures and networks into the systems that carry out agency missions.
(b) High-performance computing and network security
Pursuant to the Computer Security Act of 1987 (Public Law 100–235; 101 Stat. 1724), the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall be responsible for developing and proposing standards and guidelines needed to assure the cost-effective security and privacy of sensitive information in Federal computer systems.
(c) Study of impact of Federal procurement regulations
(1) The Secretary of Commerce shall conduct a study to—
(A) evaluate the impact of Federal procurement regulations that require that contractors providing software to the Federal Government share the rights to proprietary software development tools that the contractors use to develop the software; and
(B) determine whether such regulations discourage development of improved software development tools and techniques.
(2) The Secretary of Commerce shall, within one year after December 9, 1991, report to the Congress regarding the results of the study conducted under paragraph (1).
(d) Authorization of appropriations
From sums otherwise authorized to be appropriated, there are authorized to be appropriated—
(1) to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the purposes of the Program $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1992; $4,000,000 for fiscal year 1993; $5,000,000 for fiscal year 1994; $6,000,000 for fiscal year 1995; and $7,000,000 for fiscal year 1996; and
(2) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the purposes of the Program $2,500,000 for fiscal year 1992; $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1993; $3,500,000 for fiscal year 1994; $4,000,000 for fiscal year 1995; and $4,500,000 for fiscal year 1996.