H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** April 19, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 16 Circulation: 17,877 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 217 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 -------------------- * -------------------- 7143 ) NEC INTRODUCES SX-4B HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING SERVER FOR COMPUTE-INTENSIVE APPLICATIONS ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 8495 ) FEATURES: WHY IS IBM HAPPY ABOUT HITACHI'S NEW CMOS MAINFRAMES? | | 8497 ) SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS: PROGRESS MADE IN HUMAN VR IMMERSION | | 8498 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: SGI INTRODUCES DATAMINING SUITE, SMP CLUSTER | | 8501 ) NEWS BRIEFS: PSC'S CRAY T3E IS INSTALLED AND RUNNING APPLICATIONS | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 8493 ) HP REVEALS HIGH-END PLANS FOR NOW & FOR END OF 1990S..............11.3K News Analysis by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Hewlett-Packard stakes a path toward the century's end: the SPP 2000, with the fast PA 8000 chip; then the SPP 3000, based on Merced, the HP-Intel collaboration. Will HP/Convex's four years in the wilderness be rewarded at last? 8494 ) DIGITAL'S NEW TRUCLUSTERS DISPENSE WITH MESSAGE-BASED PARADIGM....6.46K by Alan Beck, managing editor Rather than employing protocol-based network messages between systems, Digital's TruCluster system uses Memory Channel, a patented interconnect architecture that provides a memory mapped interface resembling SMP where simple writes to memory enable communication between cluster nodes. 8495 ) WHY IS IBM HAPPY ABOUT HITACHI'S NEW CMOS MAINFRAMES?.............7.22K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Hitachi launches new, lower-priced mainframes based on CMOS chips licensed from IBM. IBM applauds: this endorses CMOS innovation in a conservative market. For HPC vendors, the commercial nut may be tougher to crack. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 8496 ) PERCEPTRONICS WINS NIH GRANT FOR NEURAL NET RESEARCH..............2.83K The National Institute of Health has awarded Perceptronics a $100,000 research grant to demonstrate the feasibility of using computer pattern recognition technology augmented by neural networks for screening and detection of eye disease. 8497 ) AGREEMENT SETS STAGE FOR FULL INTEGRATION OF HUMAN MODELING IN VR.4.17K Division Inc. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. have taken a step toward integrating representative human figures (known as "manikins") into real-time, fully immersive virtual reality worlds. COMMERCIAL NEWS 8498 ) SILICON GRAPHICS INTRODUCES DATAMINING SUITE AND SMP CLUSTER......9.28K by Alan Beck, managing editor Called MineSet, Silicon Graphics' new suite of analysis and visual datamining tools is expected to change corporate decision support from a lengthy batch-oriented approach to an interactive, real-time process. 8499 ) EVANS & SUTHERLAND EXPAND OPERATIONS INTO FILM AND VIDEO INDUSTRY.1.74K Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. has formed a new business unit that will develop and market film industry-specific products and services based on supercomputer technologies. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 8494 ) "This is just a natural extension of the SMP environment into a cluster environment. It is the first and probably the most significant step in a very natural, transparent evolution from SMP to NUMA. But we don't call it NUMA." -- Paul Krneta, technical director for database technology, DEC ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT______________________________ | | | 7144 ) Sequent Demonstrates Enterprise Warehouse Solution With New | | Scalable Data Interconnect (SDI) | | 7142 ) Call for Participation Supercomputing '96 Nov.17-22 Pittsburgh, Pa.| | 7139 ) National Supercomputing Center at Berkeley offers exciting | | employment opportunities | | 7122 ) AS HPC UNDERGOES A METAMORPHOSIS, WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC | | PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? A special report compiled 1st qtr 1996. | | 7138 ) SONY's 19MM Storage Interface Options Offer Expanded Applications | | 7143 ) How You Can Control Your Company's Announcements in HPCwire | | and Reach Over 34,000 HPC Professionals Weekly! | |___________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 8500 ) IBM Demonstrates Magnetic Disk Drive Capable of Gigabit Storage.4.76K 8501 ) PSC's Cray T3E Is Installed and Running Parallel Applications...3.80K 8502 ) NCR Plans Summer Release of Workbench Datamining Tool...........4.00K 8503 ) Sun Unveils New Class of Scalable Business Servers..............5.89K 8504 ) Cornell Theory Center Puts New SP Scheduler into Production.....3.29K 8505 ) Pilot Software Plans to Offer Open Architected OLAP Suite.......3.12K 8506 ) Unisys Integrates Open & Traditional Systems on Single Platform.5.37K 8507 ) Division Inc.'s VR Technology Used in Air Force Training........2.34K 8508 ) Unisys, Seagate and Sun Introduce Open Storage Module...........2.45K 8509 ) Vancouver Film School Selects Calisto NT Workstations...........1.48K 8510 ) Scottsdale Arizona Activates Municipal ATM Network..............4.41K 8511 ) StorageTek and EMC Settle Disk Storage Technology Patent Suit...0.92K SHORT TAKES 8512 ) Product Watch: Hitachi RAID GUI. Amdahl Fibre 2000 Storage Array21.6K 8513 ) Financial Update: Sun Q3 Net Up 33 Percent. IBM Profits Tumble..9.35K 8514 ) Corporate Liaisons: Sybase, HP & EMC Team to Tame the Terabyte..22.7K 8515 ) People & Promotions: Teledesic Hires SDSC's Hans-Werner Braun...8.32K JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities........................................2.73K From: The Portland Group, Sequent Computer, Univ. of Minnesota Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Penn State, IBM Corp. IBM Watson Research Lab, MIT, Univ. of Illinois 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated April 18)...............11.6K 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 *** 8471 ) IBM'S REDESIGN DOUBLES SP SWITCH PERFORMANCE......................5.37K 8473 ) REVIEW: CLUSTERS AND SMP BATTLE FOR HPC'S LOW END.................10.6K 8474 ) DIGITAL LIBRARY INITIATIVE TACKLES GRAND CHALLENGE OF INFO SCIENCE.5.12K 8472 ) DENNIS W. DUKE NAMED DIRECTOR OF SAN DIEGO SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER...3.32K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~