Island's Supercomputer Provides High-Tech Incentive

<H1> Island's Supercomputer Provides High-Tech Incentive</H1>By Marcie Carroll

<B>W</B>hen corporate planners think of Maui, they picture a landscape dotted with luxury hotels, golf resorts and scenic beaches. But the island's latest attraction is strictly business: It offers one of the world's most powerful computers, a resource inspiring growing interest among international high-tech firms.

The two-year-old supercomputer-originally designed to support space observatories atop Maui's 10,000-foot Mt. Haleakala-was built by the military, but shares its facilities with civilian users.

In fact, more than a thousand delegates came to Hawaii's second largest island last month to attend four conferences organized around the intriguing resources of the Maui Research and Technology Park and its Maui High Performance Computing Center. Conference attendees represented high-tech industries such as aerospace, optics, imaging and supercomputing.

While firms can buy into the super-computer's capability for large-scale data crunching and image enhancing via the Internet, many executives travel to Kihei, Maui, to see what the facilities can do for them, receive training and hold a business meeting at a neighboring hotel.

Indeed, the supercomputer and its adjacent facility has provided a high-tech draw for Maui because the center "has become a catalyst for a wealth of projects," said Bob Johnson, president and CEO of the Maui Economic Development Board.

"The combination of fiber-optic communications, supercomputing power, satellite capabilities and world-class resorts has been instrumental in attracting these kinds of conferences," added Bret Klyver, director of development for Maui Research & Technology Partners.

The government built the supercomputer, an investment that currently tops $33 million, as part of the Air Force's futuristic space surveillance system of advanced optic observatories and high-tech imaging installations atop Haleakala.

Unlike other similar supercomputer complexes in the United States, however, fully half of Maui's facilities are available for non-defense use by the private and non-profit sectors. Businesses can employ the computer for an endless variety of tasks without relinquishing proprietary rights or being forced to share profits, according to Johnson.

In fact, the available infrastructure is a boon for corporate telecommunications on the road. "There is more fiber-optic capacity in and out of Maui than the entire East Coast has going in and out of Europe," said Johnson. For example, the Air Force wants its data online with flawless clarity and high speed from this far-flung corner of the federal system. Therefore, corporate customers can take advantage of the cutting-edge telecommunications.

Referring to a recent conference of the Optical Society of America here, Barbara Hicks, director of development programs, said, "Maui is not a hard sell and the science is strong. If this conference wasn't in Hawaii, some of the European scientists attending probably would not have made the trip."

Awareness of the center's value as a meetings marketing tool has been dawning in the beach front hotels along Maui's resort coast, half a dozen of them only a short drive from the 330-acre high- tech park. "It's a huge bundle of potential. It's a seedling that we think will become a very large tree," said Ed Sowers, general manager of the Aston Wailea Resort. "If you're breaking new ground and bringing people out here to see, I can't think of a better place where technology and the environment complement each other-if you can't get inspiration in front of your CRT, you can surely get it from our sunsets."

At the same time, the Aston Wailea Resort is vigorously pursuing high-tech corporate groups, according to sales manager Leslie Schlender. An audiovisual company operates at the property, and a new full-service, online business center is being created.

While scenery and sports make Maui a favorite destination for meetings and incentive groups-an estimated 10 percent of Maui's 2.5 million visitors are corporate-the industry still battles the boondoggle image among Mainland skeptics who scoff at the idea of doing serious business in Hawaii.

Norman Snyder, Texas-based manager of high-performance computing for IBM's Asia Pacific Services Co., said Maui's dreamy image is the only real problem IBM has encountered in arranging its continuing series of demonstrations for senior-level clients.

"Every time we hold a meeting there, especially involving U.S. firms, we have to convince them that this is really a business meeting. But once we get them to go there, they believe," he said.