H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Oct. 6, 1995: Vol. 4, No. 40 Circulation: 17,716 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 193 Pages of Text ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Article Retrieval instructions at end of this file more@hpcwire.tgc.com For a free 6-week trial subscription, email trial@hpcwire.tgc.com -------------------- * -------------------- 7089) CONVEX, HP FEATURE A NEW VISION AND NEW POWER FOR GEOSCIENCE COMPUTING SOLUTIONS WITH DESKTOP TO SUPERCOMPUTING AT SEG _______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _____________________________ | | | 5957) FEATURES: VENDORS FORGE AHEAD TO EXPLOIT DATABASE POTENTIAL | | 5963) SCIENCE NEWS: CORNELL DEMONSTRATION SIMULATES PARASITE REACTION | | 5965) NEWS BRIEFS: WHITE HOUSE EXPECTED TO RELAX TECHNOLOGY EXPORT LAWS| |___________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ==================================================================== Lines 5956) EUROPEAN CENTRE APPEARS TO FAVOR FUJITSU IN CRAY REPLACEMENT BID.....78 by Alan Beck, associate editor It appears, according to informal recommendations, that the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts will be replacing its Cray with a Fujitsu. Cray says decision does not indicate a trend. 5957) NEW ARCHITECTURES REFLECT DATABASE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES............296 by Michael Erbschloe, contributing editor Even though parallel database technology is relatively new, vendors and users are forging ahead to exploit its potential. The challenge is getting all the resources properly managed in this complex environment. 5958) IAM EMPLOYS NASA TECHNOLOGY TO ACHIEVE LOSSLESS DATA COMPRESSION.....59 by Alan Beck, associate editor Next-generation VLSI architects from the Institute for Advanced Microelectronics (IAM) are no longer preoccupied with speed. Instead, special-purpose algorithms are being hardwired for commercial and academic use. Circuitry can even be designed for radiation tolerance. COMMERCIAL NEWS 5959) INFORMIX DATA WAREHOUSE MANAGES RETAIL CHAIN'S INVENTORY.............35 British retailer, NEXT, is now recording the details of every purchase for detailed marketing analyses. 5960) PACIFIC BELL AND U.S. WEST USE ORACLE WAREHOUSE TO TRACK CUSTOMERS...49 Telecommunications companies have put Oracle's data warehousing system to work identifying customer service needs. 5961) CTC PARALLEL COMPUTING SEMINAR INTRODUCES EXECUTIVES TO TECHNOLOGY...53 Noticing a shift in demand from numerically-intensive applications to data-intensive applications among their commercial partners, Cornell Theory Center and IBM hosted an executive management seminar to showcase CTC's broadened scope. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 5962) SYBASE CHOSEN AS KEY SOFTWARE PROVIDER FOR NASA'S EARTH DATABASE....182 NASA is building an extensive database to monitor how human behavior will impact the environment. Sybase will build the system that will run this project. 5963) CORNELL I-WAY DEMONSTRATION PITS PARASITE AGAINST VICTIM............140 Science fiction comes a step closer to meeting HPC fact as medical researchers and molecular drug designers team up against an ancient scourge on a microscopic battlefield -- the human circulatory system. 5964) SGI POWERS VIRTUAL OPERATING ROOM USED IN SURGEON TRAINING..........130 by Dwight Meglan, Ph.D., Greg Merril, Jonathan Merril, M.D., Rakesh Raju, Alan Millman Surgery simulation environments run on Silicon Graphics workstations, offering medical education without programming. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ========================================================== 5956) "The message is: Don't extrapolate any paradigm shift from that single ECMWF win. There's no necessary carry-over, no band-wagon effect even in the weather community." -- Steve Conway, Cray Research __________________________ INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT _____________________________ | 7090) PGI'S HPF COMPILER NOW AVAILABLE ON THE IBM SP2 | | 7092) Hewlett-Packard Company's Convex Acquisition | | 7091) Western Geophysical Purchases Fujitsu America VPP300 Supercomputer | | 7085) The Influence of ATM on HPC Data Serving - A Perspective by Maximum | | Strategy | | 7081) REGISTER FOR SC'95 ON THE WEB! Visit | | 7084) Interoperability & The GII: Comprehensive Coverage of Vital Issues | | 7082) INFRASTRUCTURE "Home Plate of Hi-Tech Investing". Analysis of Semis,| | Semi-Equipment and Flat Panel Display. http://www.infras.com | |___________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================= 5965) U.S. Will Relax Export Restrictions on Supercomputers.............130 5966) Dutch HPC Center Will Have 20 GFlop, 76-Node SP2 Online by 1996....49 5967) Cray Delivers J916 Compact Supercomputer to Solvay Chemical........28 5968) NEC Laboratory Reviews First Year of Cooperative Projects.........130 5969) Sun and Sybase Say SQL Server 11 Benchmarks at 4544.60 tpmC........42 5970) New Study Says Parallel Processing Market Will Reach $14B in 1999..41 5971) Survey Finds Simulation Software Greatly Improves Decision Making.120 5972) Product Watch: A Digest of Recent Releases........................296 5973) Financial Update: Concurrent Sees More Red; Exabyte Takes Loss.....48 5974) Corporate Liaisons: A Roundup of Recent Partnerships & Agreements.215 5975) People, Positions & Appointments: Boston Chicken Exec. to Lead IBM.99 JOB BANK ==================================================================== 667) Employment Opportunities.........................................139 Listings from: IBM, Hewlett-Packard, San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), Univ. of Alaska-Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC) 604) Job Bank Rates and Regulations....................................92 CONFERENCES ================================================================= 2888) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events....................................80 HPCwire INFORMATION ========================================================= 7000) Subscription Information/Get On-Off Mailing List/Letters to the Editor Back Issue Index/Masthead, Email Contacts, Submission Tips..........9 ______________________H P C w i r e S P O N S O R S______________________ | | | Full background information on all Sponsoring Companies | | | | 912) Avalon Computer 915) Genias Software 905) MAXIMUM STRATEGY| | 934) Convex Computer Corp. 930) HNSX Supercomputers 916) MasPar Computer | | 921) Cray Research Inc. 902) IBM Corp. 932) Portland Group | |*909) Fujitsu *904) Intel Corp. 935) Silicon Graphics| | | |__________________*Updated information within last 30 days_________________| *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS FROM HPCwire *** 5933) PSYNERGY: AT&T, HP/CONVEX, SEAGATE/CONNOR & SHOWBIZ.................234 5935) SGI AND NCSA CREATE LAB FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS..................61 5937) IBM UNVEILS DERIVATIVE PRICE CALCULATION SIMULATION TECHNOLOGY.......65 5939) CRAY'S NEW J916 SERIES PEAKS AT 3.2 GIGAGLOPS IN 64-BIT MODE.........37 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CORRECTION: The amount of AT&T's GIS operation losses was incorrectly reported in article 5933 "PSYNERGY: AT&T, HP/CONVEX, SEAGATE/CONNOR & SHOWBIZ" Sept. 29, 1995. The correct figure is $300 million. HPCwire regrets the error. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~