H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** May 31, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 23 Circulation: 17,877 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 182 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 -------------------- * -------------------- 7152 ) HOW TO ENHANCE AND EXTEND YOUR COMPANY'S ANNOUNCEMENTS TO THE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING COMMUNITY ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 8660 ) FEATURES: HPCwire INTERVIEWS AVALANCHE CHIEF ARCHITECT | | 8663 ) SCIENCE & ENGINEERING: NCAR ICING ALGORITHM STUDIED | | 8667 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: NT SYSTEM POWERS NATIVE CANADIAN GAMING | | 8668 ) NEWS BRIEFS: PGI PROVIDES PARALLELIZED COMPILER FOR PENTIUM PRO | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 8659 ) WHAT WILL BECOME OF ISUG?.........................................11.2K Special to HPCwire by Mike Bernhardt On the eve of its 12th annual conference, the Intel Supercomputer Users Group (ISUG) Board of Directors faces some difficult decisions. As the HPC industry continues to show more signs of metamorphosis, the future direction -- if not the very existence of ISUG -- is in question. 8660 ) AVALANCHE PROJECT MOVES AHEAD ON COTS SCALABLE PARALLEL PLATFORMS..6.7K by Alan Beck, managing editor Utilizing as much commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology as possible, the University of Utah's Avalanche project strives to create a high-performance multiprocessor capable of scaling to peta-op performance. HPCwire interviews chief architect Al Davis. 8661 ) SUPERPOLITICS: CAN HPC SUPPLANT HUMAN CANDIDATES?....................9K Virtual report by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Late spring madness: What would happen if the marketing habits of high- performance computing were applied to a presidential electoral campaign? This item speculates on that possibility. The authenticity of the documents could not be verified. 8662 ) HITS & HISSES: DISCUSSING THE NCAR PROCUREMENT.....................8.2K Compiled by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Opinions from HPCwire readers about the proposed NCAR procurement of NEC systems discuss the historic protectionism of Cray Research, questions about the reported price, and the higher efficiency of automated Japanese vendors. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 8663 ) NCAR POST-CRASH RESEARCH LEADS TO NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR FAA...........6.5K Research into a plane crash that took place almost two years ago has led National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientists to the creation of an algorithm to automate freezing-drizzle/icing advisories for areas smaller than those covered by the AIRMETs (airmen's meteorological information). 8664 ) HYDRODYNAMICS AND BROWNIAN MOTION IN COMPLEX FLUIDS................4.4K by David Hart, Gather/Scatter editor Using SDSC's CRAY C90, researchers have extended simple flow theories to higher concentrations of spherical particles and, going beyond earlier attempts, incorporated Brownian motion. In the future, their research will expand to include nonspherical particles, interparticle forces and more complex flows. COMMERCIAL NEWS 8665 ) D&B SOFTWARE SELECTS DIGITAL ALPHA AS DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM.........1.7K Dun & Bradstreet Software has selected the RISC-based 64-bit CPU AlphaServer line from Digital as a primary development platform for the Windows NT version of its SmartStream Distributed Enterprise, supporting SQL Server 6.5 RDBMS. 8666 ) BUREAU OF PUBLIC DEBT INSTALLS NETWORK IMAGING COLD SYSTEM.........2.4K The U.S. Bureau of Public Debt has installed a 1View:COLD/ES (Computer Output to Laser Disk for Enterprise Systems) to track up to 2,000 sale and ownership transactions per day. 8667 ) NT-BASED CASINOLINK TO SUPPLY SLOT MANAGEMENT FOR NATIVE GAMING....2.1K Four native Canadian casinos in Prince Albert, North Battleford, Yorkton and White Bear have opted to install Microsoft's NT-based CasinoLink system to manage 500 slot machines from a central location. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 8660 ) "There are many ways to count latency cycles, and a lot of them are somewhat dishonest." -- Al Davis, chief architect, Avalanche Project ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS______________________________ | 7151 ) E-Systems Announces Suppliers For 15 Teraflop HPC System | | 7150 ) NETSTAR Gigarouter Chosen as CAIRN Project's Development and | | Research Platform | | 7141 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer - | | Your Electronic Guide to What's "News" on the WWW. | | 7142 ) Call for Participation Supercomputing '96 Nov.17-22 Pittsburgh, Pa. | | 7122 ) WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? | | A special state-of-the-industry report. | |____________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 8668 ) PGI to Provide Parallelizing Compilers for Pentium Pro Systems...3.2K 8669 ) EMC, Informix Unveil Terabyte Disaster-Tolerant Database.........1.9K 8670 ) Cray Sells UniChem Software Technology to Oxford Molecular Group.3.5K 8671 ) HP Selected to Supply Workstation Solutions for Army.............1.7K 8672 ) Newbridge Awarded ATM Supply Agreement with Bell Canada..........1.5K 8673 ) Federal Security Infrastructure Project Ready to Roll............4.2K 8674 ) London Borough of Harrow Selects BMC Software....................2.3K 8675 ) Oracle and HP Announce 17,826 tpmC Multi-Node Cluster Benchmark..1.3K 8676 ) Intergraph Web Database Gateway Clocks in at 1,675.53 tmpC.......1.7K 8677 ) Sun Ultra Enterprise Servers Post SAP R/3 Benchmark..............1.3K 8678 ) Viewlogic Introduces High-Speed ASIC Verification................2.0K SHORT TAKES 8679 ) Product Watch: Red Brick Releases xPP 4. Informix Upgrades ODS....20K Hitachi Doubles Throughput. Platinum SAP R/3 Adapter 8680 ) Corporate Liaisons: Bell Labs, Silicon Valley Research Partner...7.6K 8681 ) Financial Watch: Fujitsu Earnings Strong. SAIC Shows Profit.....12.6K 8682 ) People and Positions: New President/CEO at Hitachi Data Systems..2.8K JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities.........................................2.5K From: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2), Rice University, E-Systems (3), Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center(2), Hitachi Europe (2), IBM Corp., NCSA, Hewlett Packard/Palo Alto, Sequent Computer, ARSC (4) 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated May 30, 1996)...........6.6K HPCwire INFORMATION ========================================================== 670 ) Masthead..........................................................2.2K 601 ) Subscriptions & Removals..........................................2.6K 602 ) Submitting Letters & Articles.....................................1.6K 950 ) Index of Back Issues...............................................11K 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 | |____________________________________________________________________________| -------------------- * -------------------- To date HPCwire has delivered 1,399,446 articles to HPC professionals worldwide *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 7151 E-SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES SUPPLIERS FOR 15 TERAFLOP HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING SYSTEM. (advertisement) 8632 ANALYSTS COMMENT ON SUN'S PURCHASE OF CRAY'S SPARC-BASED BUSINESS..4.6K 8633 HITS & HISSES: SCALABILITY IS OBVIOUSLY MOOT.......................9.4K 8643 NEW COMPANY APPLIES PARALLEL PROCESSING POWER TO WWW...............5.4K 8683 TOP 20 REQUESTED ITEMS FROM THE PREVIOUS EDITION OF HPCWIRE.......1.80K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~