argonne national laboratory and the emergence of computer and computational science, 1946-1992

366 Pages·2005·5.03 MB·English

The Pennsylvania State University

The Graduate School

Department of History

ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY
AND THE EMERGENCE OF COMPUTER
AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE,
1946-1992

A Thesis in

History

by

Charles Nelson Yood
© 2005 Charles Nelson Yood
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

August, 2005
The thesis of Charles Nelson Yood has been reviewed and approved* by the following:

Robert Proctor
Professor of History of Science
Stanford University
Thesis Advisor

William Pencak
Professor of American History
Chair of Committee

Gary Cross
Distinguished Professor of Modern History

Rosa Eberly
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts
and Sciences, and English

Sally McMurry
Professor of American History
Head of the Department of History and Religious Studies

* Signatures are on file at the Graduate School.
Abstract

This dissertation uses the Applied Mathematics Division (AMD) of Argonne
National Laboratory (ANL) as a window to explore the emergence of computer and
computational science as independent scientific disciplines. The evolution of the
computing activities at Argonne reflects broader issues concerning technology, identity,
professionalization, and the social organization of science.
While Argonne’s development of digital computer technology is a significant
part of this story, I focus on the AMD’s efforts to integrate computers – and their
attendant personnel – into the scientific process. In particular, the pursuit of
"computational science" required that applied mathematicians be incorporated in all
stages of science and engineering practice -- from problem formulation to the definition
of what constituted a solution. Arguments for such a collaborative structure drew on
Cold War rhetoric, debates within the mathematical profession, and issues surrounding
the increasing quantification of the sciences. Simultaneously, applied mathematicians
sought to define a new research agenda that balanced their duties to provide mathematical
expertise to other scientists with their desires to conduct their own research.
Despite the intentions of AMD directors, the interdisciplinary collaboration that
computers were supposed to foster failed to materialize as envisioned. The emergence of
an independent computer science, technological innovations, and the development of
computer expertise by other scientists effectively limited the extent of collaboration.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, though, the development of supercomputers, together with a
new federal emphasis on high-speed computer networks created new opportunities for
mathematicians, computer scientists, and scientists to work together. Impetus for
collaboration was fueled by a number of different national concerns,
including the Japanese Fifth Generation program, the need to support the domestic
supercomputing industry, and pressures to make supercomputers readily accessible to
American scientists. The federal government responded by creating the High
Performance Computing program in the late 1980s, followed by the Grand Challenge
Program of the 1990s in an effort to foster computational science – considered a third
methodology, alongside theory and experiment, for doing science . Along with enabling
computational scientists to tackle problems with broad implications for science,
economics, and national security, another result was a significant reorientation of
computer science research.
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Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………..….v
List of Archive Abbreviations……………………………………………………………vi
List of Pictures..………………………………………………………………………….vii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..…viii

Introduction: Computational Science Enters the Laboratory……………………………...1

Chapter 1: Building “Big Iron”……………………………………………………….... 23
From the Met Laboratory to Argonne National Laboratory, 1942-1948……….. 25
The Increasing Computational Load……………………………………………. 32
The Computer Section at Argonne………………………………………………41
The Move to Commercial Computers …………………………………………...56

Chapter 2: Applied Mathematics, “Hybrid Areas” and the Social Organization of
Computational Science at Argonne National Laboratory, 1949-1975…………...68
New Opportunities for Applied Mathematicians…………...……………………78
The Social Organization of Computing At Argonne…………………………….90
The Drive for Disciplinary Independence………………………………………122
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...159

Chapter 3: Emergent Identities: High Performance Computing and the Rise of Computer
and Computational Science……………..………………………………………172
Lessons learned: the Computer Science Institute and EISPACK………………177
The Technological and Social Context for Computational Science…………....200
The Fifth Generation……………………………………………………………216
High Performance Computing at Argonne: Computational Science Gains
Momentum…………………………………………………………………...…239
The Federal High-Performance Computing Initiative………………………….267
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...278

Chapter 4: The Computational Science Machine……………………………………...286
The Computational Science Hierarchy…………………………………………291
Computational Science and New Research Priorities………………………….296
HPCC and the MCS Advanced Research Computing Facility…………………299

Summary and Conclusion: Computational Science and the History of Science………308

Selected Bibliography………….………………………………………………………326
List of Abbreviations

ACF: Advanced Computing Facility
ACM: Association for Computing Machinery
ACRF: Advanced Computing Research Facility
AEC: Atomic Energy Commission
AECCAG: Atomic Energy Commission, Computer Advisory Group
AFIPS: American Federation of Information Processing Societies
AMD: Applied Mathematics Division
AMP: Applied Mathematics Panel
AUA: Argonne University Association
AVIDAC: Argonne’s Version of the Institute’s Digital Automatic Computer
CSCC: Concurrent Supercomputing Consortium
CTD: Computing and Telecommunications Division, Argonne
DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
ECF: Experimental Computing Facility
ERDA: Energy Research and Development Agency
FCCSET: Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology
HEP (DENELCOR): Heterogeneous Element Processor
HPC: High-Performance Computing Initiative
HPCC: High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative
MCS: Math and Computer Science Division, Argonne
NAML: National Applied Mathematics Laboratory
NATS: National Activity to Test Software
NDRC: National Defense Research Council
NSF: National Science Foundation
ONR: Office of Naval Research
OSRD: Office of Scientific Research and Development
OSTP: Office of Science and Technology Policy
SCS: Scientific Computing Staff, Department of Energy

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List of Archive Abbreviations

AUA: Argonne University Association

COHC: Computer Oral History Collection, Smithsonian Institute

DOE Archives: Department of Energy Archives, Germantown, MD

GLFRCNARA: Great Lakes Federal Record Center, National Archives and Records
Center, Chicago, Illinois

MCS Archives: Math and Computer Science Archives, Argonne National Laboratory

NARA: National Archives and Record Center, Washington, D.C.

NARA II: National Archives and Record Center, College Park, MD

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List of Pictures

1. Donald Flanders and J.C. Chu, p. 64
2. The ORACLE, p. 65
3. GEORGE-FLIP Computer, p. 66
4. Genealogy of Early Computer Systems, p. 67
5. AMD Org Chart, 1963-64, p. 166
6. AMD Org Chart, 1964-65, p. 167
7. AMD Org Chart, 1965-66, p. 168
8. AMD Org Chart, 1966-67, p. 169
9. Central Computing Facility, Applied Mathematics Division, p. 171
10. Service Desk, Central Computing Facility AMD, p. 172
11. The DENELCOR HEP Computer System, p. 282
12. Strategic Computing Initiative Program Structure and Goals, p. 283
13. The Fully Articulated Strategic Computing Program Pyramid, p. 284
14. The High Performance Computing Program Components, p. 285

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following institutions and people who made this project
possible. Shortly after beginning my project in 1998, it became clear that the Department
of History at Penn State University was reluctant to provide funding for research in the
History of Computing. In fall 1999, I received a Mark and Lucy MacMillan Stitzer
Program Support Endowment in History. This small grant enabled me to visit the
Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota, where I began the preliminary
research for my project. In spring, 2000, I applied for and received a newly created
fellowship at the Department of Energy for the History of Computing. At the DoE
headquarters in Germantown, MD I met Skip Gosling, the Chief Historian for the agency
and the assistant historian, Terry Fehner. Although there was no set project in mind, they
were excited by the possibilities of producing a historical account of the DoE’s role in
computing and seemed excited by my ideas and enthusiasm. I owe them a tremendous
debt of gratitude, for without their support it is unlikely that I would have continued in
my graduate program.
The DoE fellowship was the brainchild of Jim Corones of the Krell Institute in
Ames, Iowa. Dr. Corones had been a computational physicist at the National Laboratory
in Ames and was keenly interested in producing a scholarly account of the emergence of
computational science. It was his suggestion that I focus on Argonne National
Laboratory because of its long history of computer use, plus the fact that many of the
computer pioneers from the lab were still alive and willing to be interviewed. It was Jim
who first brought it to my attention that computer science and computational science,
although closely related, were two distinct entities. The DoE/Krell Institute funding was
substantial, and I was able to begin week-long research visits to Argonne beginning that
summer.
At Argonne, I met many interesting, supportive, and friendly people. I would
especially like to thank Margaret Butler, a founding member of the Applied Mathematics
Division (AMD) in 1957. She willingly submitted to three long interviews, many emails
and phone conversations, and donated to me personal materials related to computing.
Margaret was also instrumental in putting me into contact with current and retired
members of the AMD, including Joe Cook, William Cody, Wayne Cowell, Paul Messina,
and Bill Miller, and she also read and commented on my first two chapters. In addition, I
would like to thank the aforementioned members of the AMD for agreeing to be
interviewed at length and for donating their personal papers to me as well. Gail Pieper
was particularly helpful for sharing her office at Argonne with me and for providing
encouragement and support during my visits to Argonne. Her knowledge of the history
of the AMD, and especially its personnel, was invaluable. Judy Beumer, my main
contact within the Math and Computer Science Division at Argonne, was tireless in her
efforts to make my visits to Argonne productive and she spent many hours of her own
time facilitating my research.
My research activities attracted the attention of Dr. Catherine Westfall, the Chief
Historian at Argonne. In early summer, 2002, she offered me an ANL Graduate
Fellowship -- the first such fellowship awarded to a historian. This fellowship allowed
me to finish my research in Chicago, Urbana-Champaign, Germantown, and Washington,
D.C. Catherine has been actively involved in my progress throughout; not only did she
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read and comment on drafts, but she also made an effort to include me in scholarly
conferences which she helped to organize. It was at her initiative that I met other
historians doing work on the national laboratories. Catherine’s support and enthusiasm
for my project kept me going during the long writing stage. Elizabeth Paris, another
historian hired by Catherine, provided critical comments in the earliest stages of my
project and also introduced me to many of her colleagues at the History of Science
Society conference.
In 2003-2004 I received a National Bureau of Economic Research, Science and
Engineering Workforce Project Dissertation Fellowship. I want to thank Dr. John
Trumpbour, the only historian in a “sea of economists” on the SEWP panel, for
supporting my project. His astute comments on my proposal and progress report enabled
me to get additional funding from the NBER in spring 2004.
Lastly, I received a dissertation Fellowship from the National Science Foundation
in fall 2003 and summer 2004. This fellowship enabled me to finish the draft of my first
two chapters and provided support while I was unemployed in fall 2004.
While financial support was crucial to the success of my dissertation, without the
support of my advisor, Dr. Robert Proctor, none of this would have been possible. Dr.
Proctor’s unflagging support during my years at Penn State was often the only thing that
kept me in the program. Robert exposed me to opportunities which I would not have had
otherwise – most especially by bringing me along in 1999 to the Max-Planck-Institute für
Wissenschaftsgesch., Summer Academy in Berlin. In addition to making me feel like a
true scholar for the first time, I also had an opportunity to spend time with the person who
would later become my spouse. I am sure that my slow progress was exasperating at
times for Robert, but throughout the years he continued to offer unflagging
encouragement. Moreover, he was always interested in my ideas and ready to offer his
own suggestions about how they might be refined or extended. His advice over the years
remained consistent -- “just start writing” -- although I didn’t quite take it to heart (or
understand it) until mid-way through the dissertation. There were many occasions that
Robert’s “invisible hand” made it possible for me to complete my graduate program. I
would also like to thank two other members of my committee, Drs. William Pencak and
Rosa Eberly, for their last minute work on my behalf and for their incisive comments on
my dissertation.
Finally, I want to thank Sarah Goodfellow, whose love, patience, support, and
companionship have made the past five years a wonderfully exciting adventure. Her
various roles as scholar, confident, partner, and mother sustained me throughout the
process and continues to inspire me.

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To Sarah and Elliot, who enrich my life immeasurably.