ITHACA, N.Y.-Scientists and engineers in American industry desperately need computing power far beyond the capability of today's fastest supercomputers. The computer industry hopes to fill that need-with the help of university researchers.

That vision emerged during a conference on supercomputing held last month at Cornell University's Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering. The facility is one office university centers for research on super-computing established last year by the National Science Foundation.

"The Cray just isn't good enough, and it isn't good enough by a factor of 100," said John McTague, vice president of re search for the Ford Motor Company and former acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. McTague said that better computers are vital to American security in the current economic wars being waged with our allies.

Kenneth Wilson, a Nobel laureate in physics and director of Cornell's supercomputing center,...

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