The National Science Foundation is an independent U.S.agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through programmes that invest over $3.3 billion per year in nearly 20,000 research and education projects in science and engineering. Acharya proposes to transform the computer hard drive from primarily a storage device to one that can process, manage and manipulate the information it stores.

Known as Active Disks, the new approach seeks to cut down the time a computer takes to retrieve and process large datasets. This will make it particularly useful for large data warehousing installations, likethose operated by department store chains such as Sears and WalMart, said a university statement. "Several application trends indicate that it might be profitable to move data-intensive computation closer to the data that it processes," said Acharya.