H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** April 5, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 14 Circulation: 17,877 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 223 Pages of Text ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Article Retrieval instructions at end of this file more@hpcwire.tgc.com For subscription information, email sub@hpcwire.tgc.com For a free 4-week trial subscription, e-mail trial@hpcwire.tgc.com -------------------- * -------------------- 7139 ) NATIONAL ENERGY RESEARCH SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING CENTER (NERSC) MOVES TO BERKELEY LAB, ANNOUNCES NEW SUPERCOMPUTING SCIENCES EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES The Berkeley Lab seeks highly qualified computing professionals to join its exciting new computing sciences program. Retrieve item 7139 for details. ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 8450 ) HITS & HISSES: JAPANESE VENDORS' SHARE OF THE HPC MARKET | | 8452 ) SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS: WEATHER FORECASTING FOR THE OLYMPICS | | 8454 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: INTELLIGENT STOCK DOCUMENT RECOGNITION | | 8456 ) NEWS BRIEFS: NEW BOARD MEMBERS AT CRAY. CEO PHIL SAMPER RESIGNS. | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 8448 ) WILL PERFWIDTH ENDURE THE TINTINNABULATION OF THE BELLS?..........13.4K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large "Perfwidth" underscores the interdependence of computational performance and high bandwidth. The regional Bell telecoms companies seek profit on the perfwidth front, but are they afflicted once again with self-hypenosis? The Dow Jones II hype index looks grim. 8449 ) NOVEL ARCHITECTURAL PARADIGM IS READY FOR TESTING.................5.73K by Alan Beck, managing editor Advocates of continuum architecture, an alternate approach to parallel computation that shares many features with the dataflow paradigm, believe that, if its theoretical promise proves out, continuum architecture will evolve into the primary approach to petaflop computing. 8450 ) HITS & HISSES: JAPANESE VENDORS' SHARE OF HI-END HPC MARKET.......4.18K Compiled by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Fujitsu and HP/Convex managers question a statement that high-end sales by Japanese vendors in 1995 were a "minor fraction" of Cray Research's order backlog for its T-90 parallel vector system, described by Cray as $200 million. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 8451 ) TRAVELS WITH SILICON..............................................7.33K by Michael Schneider, senior science writer, PSC Researchers are using Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's (PSC) Cray C90 and T3D to construct a detailed road map of the travels of silicon atoms. The adaptation of quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) used in this research runs at 693 Mflops on a single C90 processor. 8452 ) HIGH-RESOLUTION WEATHER FORECASTING SYSTEM READIED FOR OLYMPICS...2.36K A 30-node IBM RS/6000 SP running IBM's Visualization Data Explorer will provide highly-targeted, fine-grained weather forecasting for the Olympic games this summer. The detailed, 2-D and 3-D models will be posted on the Olympic Games, National Weather Service and IBM Web sites. 8453 ) NEUROSURGICAL PROCEDURES DEMONSTRATION SHOWCASES ATM TECHNOLOGIES.3.27K A sophisticated ATM network allowed Networld+Interop attenders to view live neurosurgical procedures performed in a Pittsburgh hospital. The system demonstrated is part of a full-scale, intra-state system already used to perform long-distance education and remote diagnostics. COMMERCIAL NEWS 8454 ) MERCURY AND CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE TO MARKET DOCUMENT SERVER......1.94K Recent advances in computer performance and "intelligent recognition" techniques have led to the development of an intelligent data-capture system to process batches of mixed-form documents. The design, based on Mercury's RACE multicomputer architecture, is currently used by the Chicago Stock Exchange. 8455 ) NEW WORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EXPECTED TO SAVE IOWA $250,000.........2.35K A 175-user system comprised of Wang imaging and workflow software running on a HP-UX 9000 K220 server and an Oracle-based client server system will be used to manage Iowa's Department of Natural Resources air pollution and air quality management permit applications. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 8449 ) "Anybody who professes to be engaged in even thinking about a new class of parallel architecture is venturing in the area of almost arrogance." -- Thomas Sterling, senior scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT______________________________ | | | 7122) AS HPC UNDERGOES A METAMORPHOSIS, WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC | | PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? A special report compiled 1st qtr 1996. | | 7135 ) For $400 Your Job Ad Can Reach Everyone Else Who's Reading This. | | 7134 ) Fujitsu America Introduces new VPP700 Series Supercomputer | | 7137 ) HPCN Europe`96, Brussels, April 15 - 19: Retrieve For Full Details.| | 7138 ) SONY's 19MM Storage Interface Options Offer Expanded Applications | | 7140 ) HPCN Tutorials and Workshops Listings Announced | |___________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 8456 ) SGI Appoints New Cray Board Members. CEO Phillip Samper Resigns.4.53K 8457 ) Lawrence Livermore Lab Software Snares International Hacker.....2.53K 8458 ) Cray Research Completes Printed Circuit Board Facility Sale.....1.03K 8459 ) Sun MicroSPARC-IIe Family Targets Embedded PCI Bus Applications.2.57K 8460 ) COMSAT Satellite-Based ATM Services Will Be Available This Fall.1.69K 8462 ) Silicon Graphics Posts SPEC SFS Benchmarks for Challenge Server.1.23K 8463 ) Motorola Will Sample Late Write Fast Static RAMs by End of 1996.2.76K 8464 ) Market Shift from Mainframes Results in Hefty Layoffs at Unisys.1.58K 8465 ) GM Approves Spinoff of EDS. Board of Directors Appointed........3.98K SHORT TAKES 8466 ) Product Watch: Oracle7 on Tandem. Rational Apex' C/C++ Cross....17.2K 8467 ) Networking Product Watch: SGI's NFS Protocol Extension & More...12.4K 8468 ) Financial Update: S&P Affirms Unisys Rating. Harris Now Trading.5.22K 8469 ) Corporate Liaisons: Veritas Acquires ACSC. Wang & SAIC Partner..11.6K 8470 ) People & Promotions: Amdahl GM Named VP of BofA Venture Capital.4.58K JOB BANK ====================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities........................................2.55K From: Penn State, IBM Watson Research Lab, MIT, IBM Corporation, Concurrent Technology Corporation, University of Illinois 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated April 4)................10.4K HPCwire INFORMATION ========================================================== 670 ) Masthead.........................................................2.17K 601 ) Subscriptions & Removals.........................................2.61K 602 ) Submitting Letters & Articles....................................1.58K 950 ) Index of Back Issues.............................................10.5K Comments regarding editorial content may be sent to: editor@hpcwire.tgc.com ______________________H P C w i r e S P O N S O R S_______________________ | Full background information on all Sponsoring Companies | | | | 936) Sony 905)*Maximum Strategy 937) Digital Equipment | | 934)*HP/Convex Tech. Center930) HNSX Supercomputers 932) *Portland Group | | 921) Cray Research Inc. 902) IBM Corp. 915) *Genias Software | | 909) Fujitsu 904) Intel Corp. 935) Silicon Graphics | | | |__________________*Updated information within last 30 days__________________| *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 8423 ) HITS & HISSES: CRAY OBJECTS AND FUJITSU DEPLORES..................10.7K 8421 ) ILLUMINATA'S CEO REVIEWS THE STATUS OF NUMA AND SMP...............6.80K 8422 ) SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER DIRECTORS TESTIFY TO HOUSE ON NSF POLICIES..7.26K 8420 ) NERSC--I: GETTING READY TO MOVE TO BERKELEY.......................11.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~