Sandia without AT&T

Electronic News, May 11, 1992 by Joanne Connelly

The changing of the guard in Albuquerque next year will truly be the end of an era. AT&T said last week that it would relinquish its management role of Sandia National Laboratories -- a role it assumed at the request of President Truman in 1949 -- when its current contract with the Department of Energy expires in September 1993.

What a difference 43 years make. At the time AT&T took over management of Sandia, it was still the parent of the Bell system, the nation's regulated monopoly for both local and long distance telephone service, and a one-stop shop for equipment and international services. On the world scene, the Soviets had detonated a nuclear device, and China would soon be known as Red China.

Sandia too was a different animal in 1949 -- a national laboratory constructed at the end of the second World War to work with sister lab Los Alamos on the research and development of nuclear weapons. To the benefit of U.S. industry, Sandia quickly became expert in electronics, opening the Laminar Air Flow Clean Room in 1961. It would go on to develop electronic locks that would one day be ordered placed on all NATO nuclear weapons to prevent unauthorized use, as well as develop most of the electronics for the Vela nuclear detection satellites in the early 60s.

This Bell Laboratories -like braintrust of the desert went on to sharpen its expertise in the area of radiation-hardened electronics, and in 1988 celebrated the fabrication of more than 10,000 Sandia designed and built rad-hard microprocessors, memories and custom -integrated circuits which represent the major portion of the electronics to be used in NASA's Project Galileo spacecraft bound for Mars.

Constructed as the race to build the bomb caught the attention of much of the world, the Sandia of the 90s has become a focal point for federal technology transfer efforts. The lab's Microelectronics Quality/Reliability Center, formed in early 1991, has already signed Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with six major semiconductor manufacturers, including LSI Logic and National Semiconductor.

Through four decades of discovery AT&T shepherded the lab, watching over one of our country's national treasures, much like AT&T's own Bell Laboratories division. But last week, the company announced that in an era of increasing global competition and challenges, its management of Sandia no longer fit into its long term plans.

"It's a different AT&T," a company spokesman said last week. And a different world. At the request of then President Truman, AT&T took on and maintained a no-profit contract for more than 40 years at Sandia. Finding a company willing to take AT&T's place on the same terms -- for the good of the nation and not the bottom line -- would likely be next to impossible. For those reasons, DOE sources last week said the new RFP and eventual contract will include fees to the contractor over-and-above the cost reimbursement.

While the door closes on AT&T's management of the laboratory, work at Sandia will no doubt continue. When the DOE releases its request for proposal in its quest for a new helmsman, another company, university, or consortium will step forth to fill the void. AT&T has changed, Sandia has changed, and the world has changed. What AT&T leaves behind is not just a relic of the Cold War, but a goldmine of U.S. scientific achievement. AT&T's 43-year watch over Sandia was public service above-and-beyond the call of duty.