But the wide scope of the F.D.A. surveillance operation, its broad range of targets across Washington, and the huge volume of computer information that it generated were not previously known, even to some of the targets.
And the valuables are not blueprints or styling sketches, but the huge volume of computer instructions required by these cars: the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid uses about 10 million lines of computer code to shunt power seamlessly among the car's battery pack, power inverter, drive motor, gas engine, generator and other subsystems.
After more than five years of retooling, restructuring and retrenching, IBM's Personal Systems Group swears it has finally made the right changes to sell large volumes of computers profitably.
By year-end, the firm will include 15 more consultants, some working in business development, investment banking and volume purchasing of computers and other needs.
Lasers are already used to transmit high volumes of computer data over longer distances — for example, between offices, cities and across oceans — using fiber optic cables.
(Until recently, animators had to punch in volumes of computer code -- for characters, for textures, for movements -- and then let it process for hours, or even overnight, before seeing how the result looked).
The extra money will be invested in some of the eight areas identified as critically important by the Chancellor in a speech to the Royal Society last month, including a national centre for new types of composite materials in Bristol as well as research into ways of handling huge volumes of computer-generated data.
Acknowledging that selling high volumes of computer connector cards through distributors may not fit with his networking business, Benhamou left the door open to a further restructuring of 3Com.
Back in 2007, he put out two volumes of Computer Incarnations for World Peace, which mixed together Sylvester, former Frank Zappa violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, Swiss Balearic master Lexx, and a dreamteam collaboration between Todd Terje and Prins Thomas.
