U.S. SUPERCOMPUTER PACT CREATES SUPER FUROR.

Byline: John Markoff The New York Times

Rejecting calls that it select an American computer maker, the National Science Foundation announced Friday that it planned to buy a supercomputer from NEC Corp., the first such purchase by the government from a Japanese company.

At the same time, however, the foundation said that it had evidence that NEC had offered the computer at a price below cost, supporting accusations by several congressmen and Cray Research Inc., NEC's American rival for the supercomputer contract.

According to a statement released late Friday by the foundation, Commerce Department officials had advised it that they had ``reached a preliminary conclusion that the proposal does not constitute an offer at `fair value.' ''

The awarding of the supercomputer contract, which is worth $13 million to $35 million, had been closely watched as an indicator of U.S. trade policies.

Washington has generally said that it wants competitive forces to have a freer rein, and it has particularly pressed Tokyo to open its governmental procurement to foreign suppliers. But the award was critical to Cray, with thousands of American jobs at stake. Cray, the dominant U.S. supercomputer company, has struggled in recent years.

``I am absolutely appalled by the arrogance and irresponsibility displayed by officials of the NSF in their decision to go forward with the procurement of a Japanese-made supercomputer despite clear and compelling evidence that the computer is being dumped on the U.S. market by Japanese producers,'' said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Supercomputers are the fastest computers available, performing tens of billions of calculations a second. They are typically used by the military and for scientific and engineering simulations.

The new National Science Foundation supercomputer, which will be installed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., is intended to aid climate research.