H P C S E L E C T N E W S The Electronic News Magazine for High-Performance Computing *** May 21: Volume 2, Number 20. Circulation: 11,175 *** ============================================================================= This week's edition of Select News is sponsored by: ADVANCED NETWORK & SERVICES ANS offers the lowest-cost nationwide Internet access. For information, select 720. ============================== IN THIS ISSUE ================================ 1060) NEWS BRIEFS: IBM Rolls Out Seven New Models in Its RS/6000 Line 341) COMMENTARY: Cooperation and Consensus Pave Way To Data Superhighway 342) BEHIND THE SCENES: Visualization in the National Metacenter 1800) BENCHMARKS: NAS Results -- The Scalar Pentadiagonal Benchmark ============================================================================= ***************************************************************************** NEWS BRIEFS 1056) GLOBAL CLIMATE RESEARCHERS WIN AWARD FOR OCEAN EDDY MODELS Cambridge, Mass. -- Two researchers who used a supercomputer to model the world's oceans and their influence on global climate have won the 1993 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Breakthrough Computational Science. -------------------- 1057) CLINTON PRAISES LOS ALAMOS, PUSHES FOR MORE CIVILIAN FOCUS Los Alamos, N.M. -- During a visit Monday to Los Alamos National Laboratory, President Clinton Monday touted the benefits of high technology to reinvigorate the nation's economy. -------------------- 1058) MPP COULD ACCOUNT FOR 25 PERCENT OF CRAY'S REVENUES IN 1994 St. Paul, Minn. -- Cray Research Inc. could sell 30 to 40 of its first- generation massively parallel processing systems during 1994 "if we do things correctly," according to Derek Robb, director of sales. -------------------- 1059) CATERPILLAR DESIGNS COME TO LIFE THROUGH NCSA PARTNERSHIP Champaign, Ill. -- Through its partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Caterpillar Inc. hopes to use virtual reality to help save millions of dollars on prototype construction and boost competitiveness by speeding the development of new products. -------------------- 1060) IBM ROLLS OUT SEVEN NEW MODELS IN ITS RISC SYSTEM/6000 LINE White Plains, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp. Tuesday added seven new systems to its RISC System/6000 product line, including what the company called its most powerful entry-level desktop models to date. -------------------- 1061) SCIENTISTS TO PUSH LIMITS OF OPTICAL FIBER WITH NEW NETWORK Chicago, Ill. -- An article in Monday's edition of the Chicago Tribune described how new fiber-optic technologies will in the future support revolutionary high-tech exchanges between scientists across the country. -------------------- ALSO THIS WEEK: (Full stories available from more@hpcwire.ans.net) 1062) IBM's Adstar Announces Flood of High-End Storage Products 1063) Analysts Raise Earnings Estimates for HP After Strong Q2 1064) Digital Announces StorageWorks Modular Storage Solutions 1065) NCSA Installs Ampex 19mm Subsystem for Convex C3880 Users 1066) nCUBE Makes Lease Financing Available for Its MPP Customers 1067) DEC's Alpha Not Projected As Major Money-Maker Until FY '94 1068) Cray Research Expects to Earn About $2.50 Per Share in '93 1069) Mips, NEC Unveil R4200 Chip for Notebook, Embedded Systems 1070) Parametric Technology Announces Release 11 of Pro/Engineer 1071) Mercury Says Its New Race Multicomputers Scale to 80 GFLOPS 1072) NCSA, SDSC to Host Metacenter Parallel Computing Institutes 1073) For the Record: Miscellaneous HPC News and Notes -- 25 Items ***************************************************************************** QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 1059) "We're doing things like combustion analysis to predict engine emissions. We built a computer model of soil to predict how well our machines will dig in different types of soil. We've studied production processes. We even studied dealer locations to determine the best place for our new stores." -- Richard Ingram of Caterpillar Inc., on the company's diverse uses of supercomputer power as an NCSA industrial partner. ***************************************************************************** INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT 731) DEC Announces Distributed Computing Environment for OSF/1 ***************************************************************************** ANALYSIS & FEATURES 341) COOPERATION AND CONSENSUS PAVE WAY TO DATA SUPERHIGHWAY Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, Editor at Large If the Capulets and Montagues had settled their differences before Act I, Shakespeare would not have had much of a play, but life might have been easier for Romeo and Juliet. Recent collaborations and a new consensus within an improbable coalition may have comparable consequences in accelerating progress toward a national information superhighway. -------------------- 342) BEHIND THE SCENES: VISUALIZATION IN THE NATIONAL METACENTER By Mike Bailey, San Diego Supercomputer Center A recent workshop held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center brought together 27 participants from the four NSF supercomputing centers and the Visualization Science and Technology Center to discuss the role that visualization will play in the National Metacenter. -------------------- 343) FEATURE: OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING GAINS ACCEPTANCE By Allen Robinson, Sandia National Laboratories Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are in the forefront of utilizing object-oriented programming in their next-generation engineering development efforts for applications as varied as robot control, mesh generation, fluid and solid dynamics, combustion, and drug design. ***************************************************************************** SCIENCE NEWS 436) Ancients May Have Used Marijuana to Aid Childbirth 437) "Tens of Thousands" Dying Each Year From Air Pollution 438) Futurists Remain Undaunted Despite Failed Predictions ***************************************************************************** SELECT NEWS INFORMATION 601) Subscription Rates for HPC Select News 602) Contribute Your News, Tips and Information for Select News 603) HPC Select News Masthead and Contact Information ***************************************************************************** OTHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE THIS WEEK: BENCHMARKS 1800) NAS Benchmark Results: The Scalar Pentadiagonal Benchmark FACTS & FIGURES 1801) System Specifications: The Princeton Engine, a Real-Time Video Super 1802) System Specifications: NCD's High-End MCX X Terminals EDUCATION 1803) Sandia National Labs Takes Active Role in Educational Programs RESEARCH REGISTER 1804) Numerical Models of Thermal Convection in the Earth's Interior 1805) Parallel Tool Makers: Francine Berman and Scott Baden BACK ISSUES 950) A Complete Index of HPC Select News Back Issues ***************************************************************************** LAST WEEK'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS FROM HPC SELECT NEWS 894) New SPARCstation 10 Configurations and Performance Numbers 1036) IBM's GF-11 Completes Largest Computer Calculation Ever 340) Letters: Anything But Massive, But What Other Name for Parallelism? 433) Amazing New Plastic Can Withstand Heat of Nuclear Explosion ***************************************************************************** SPONSORS: Free information available from the following companies 901) ANS 902) IBM Corp. 903) Network Systems 904) Intel 905) Maximum Strategy 906) nCUBE 907) Digital Equipment 908) Hewlett-Packard 909) Fujitsu America 910) Convex Computer 911) Fed Data 912) Avalon Computers 913) The Smaby Group 914) Applied Parallel Res. 915) Genias Software 916) MasPar Computer 917) MMB Development 918) FastComm 920) R.J. 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