H P C S E L E C T N E W S The Electronic News Magazine for High-Performance Computing *** May 28: Volume 2, Number 21. Circulation: 11,132 *** ============================================================================= This week's edition of Select News is sponsored by: IBM TECHNICAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS IBM TCS offers a variety of consulting and service offerings addressing storage management in the open systems environment. For specifications, select 726. ============================== IN THIS ISSUE ================================ 344) EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Craig Barrett, Chief Operating Officer of Intel 1075) NEWS BRIEFS: Rollwagen Withdraws His Name From Commerce Department Job 345) COMMENTARY: Whatever Happened to the Supercomputer? 1806) BENCHMARKS: NAS Parallel Results -- The Block Tridiagonal Benchmark 1807) FACTS & FIGURES: FY 1993 Agency Spending for the Federal HPCC Program ============================================================================= ***************************************************************************** QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 344) "We intend to get out of the supercomputer business right after we get out of the x86 microprocessor business." -- Craig Barrett, chief operating officer of Intel Corp., on rumors that Intel will dissolve its Supercomputer Systems Division ***************************************************************************** NEWS BRIEFS 1074) CRAY COMPUTER DELIVERS FIRST CRAY-3, READIES CRAY-4 FOR '94 Colorado Springs, Colo. -- Days after shipping the first Cray-3 system to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Cray Computer Corp. told Select News Wednesday that it will have a sample Cray-4 processor running by the end of the year, with a "full-blown prototype" expected in late 1994. -------------------- 1075) ROLLWAGEN WITHDRAWS HIS NAME FROM COMMERCE DEPARTMENT JOB Washington, D.C. -- Former Cray Research Inc. CEO John Rollwagen, whose Senate confirmation hearings were delayed by an insider-trading investigation, has withdrawn as nominee for deputy commerce secretary. -------------------- 1076) GAO PROVIDES POINTED CRITICISM FOR ARPA'S HPC PROGRAM Washington, D.C. -- The Advanced Research Projects Agency's high- performance computing program -- while successful in developing new technologies -- has focused on too few vendors, has not been disseminated well to the technical community, and needs greater emphasis on MPP software, according to a report released by the U.S. General Accounting Office. -------------------- 1077) SIMULATED BIRTH PROCESS SAVES UNNECESSARY PAIN AND LABOR Chicago, Ill. -- A German physician is using a Cray Y-MP supercomputer to simulate the birth process in an effort to increase safety during delivery. -------------------- 1078) nCUBE ANNOUNCES SALES OF SEVEN nCUBE 2 MPP SYSTEMS IN JAPAN Foster City, Calif. -- nCUBE Monday said it now commands more than 50 percent of the Japanese MPP market with the announcement of seven new nCUBE 2 system sales in Japan. -------------------- ALSO THIS WEEK: (Full stories available from more@hpcwire.ans.net) 1079) HP Executives Raise Dividend, Praise Company's Performance 1080) IBM, EMass to Deliver System That Can Store 10,000 TBytes 1081) Computer Network Technologies Acquires UltraNet for $1.88M 1082) StorageTek Reports Amperif Merger, Progress on Iceberg 1083) NeXT Ports NextStep Operating System to HP 9000 Machines 1084) Sun, Fujitsu Form Partnership to Design MicroSPARC II Chip 1085) HP Releases Task Broker 1.1 Distributed Processing Software 1086) Network Systems Unveils Greenline-IP Channel Networking Line 1087) Digital's New Alpha-Based PC Called the World's Fastest 1088) OSF Vendors Herald Support for Distributed Computing Environment 1089) Du Pont Pixel Announces PX/Iris Explorer for SPARCstations 1090) For the Record: Miscellaneous HPC News and Notes -- 16 Items ***************************************************************************** INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT 730) APR Announces Parallel Processing Workshop in June 732) ANS Provides LAN-to-LAN Connectivity Across the Atlantic ***************************************************************************** ANALYSIS & FEATURES 344) Q&A: CRAIG BARRETT, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF INTEL CORP. Exclusive Interview by Mathew Burns, Managing Editor Barrett discusses problems with the Paragon, the company's stronger focus on software, competition with Thinking Machines, the government's role in HPC, and rumors that Intel is leaving the supercomputer business. -------------------- 345) WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SUPERCOMPUTER? Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, Editor at Large Once upon a time, in a galaxy not far away, it was easy to define a supercomputer. A little later, it was almost as easy to describe a more elastic concept, high-performance computing. Now, however, these definitions are disappearing. Old distinctions are fading. -------------------- 346) WHY WORRY ABOUT HDTV -- AND KOMPUTERVIZION? News Analysis by Norris Parker Smith, Editor at Large Users of HPC systems may not care much whether, in the next few years, they are able to own a TV with the resolution and brilliance of a top-quality graphics workstation terminal. Yet high-definition television could have other significant long-term consequences, including effects on the computing industry, high-bandwidth communications and high-performance applications. ***************************************************************************** SCIENCE NEWS 439) Evidence From Tree Rings Refutes Global Warming Theories 440) Two Shuttle Missions Recommended to Repair Hubble Telescope 441) Study: Massive 1857 Quake Still Causing Big Jolts in California ***************************************************************************** 507) ACTIVE HPC STOCKS CLOSING 05/12 CLOSING 05/26 CHANGE Intel 98 110 1/2 +12 1/2 SynOptics Communications Inc. 116 3/4 127 1/2 + 8 3/4 Hewlett-Packard Co. 78 1/8 86 1/4 + 8 1/8 Cisco Systems Inc. 49 56 1/4 + 7 1/4 (To receive a full list of 70 HPC stocks, select 507.) ***************************************************************************** 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 1806) NAS Benchmark Results: The Block Tridiagonal Benchmark FACTS & FIGURES 1807) Fiscal Year 1993 Agency Spending for the Federal HPCC Program 1808) Specifications: Sun's New 535-MB Fast SCSI-2 Disk Drive BOOKSHELF 1809) New Books -- Solaris Porting Guide and The ToolTalk Service RESEARCH REGISTER 1810) Sandia National Labs Tackles the Network Destruction Problem RESOURCES 1811) Commercial Software Packages Available For Academic Users 1812) SDSC Image Tools Available Via Anonymous FTP BACK ISSUES 950) A Complete Index of HPC Select News Back Issues ***************************************************************************** LAST WEEK'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS FROM HPC SELECT NEWS 1060) IBM Rolls Out Seven New Models in Its RISC System/6000 Line 1058) MPP Could Account for 25 Percent of Cray's Revenues in 1994 341) Commentary: Cooperation and Consensus Pave Way to Data Superhighway 342) Behind the Scenes: Visualization in the National Metacenter ***************************************************************************** SPONSORS: Free information available from the following companies 901) ANS 902) IBM Corp. 903) Network Systems 904) Intel (NEW INFO!) 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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