H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Sep. 13, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 38 Circulation: 16,788 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 191 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 -------------------- * -------------------- The Real Numbers behind Net Profits * The Largest study of Web marketers ever conducted * A must for any SERIOUS net marketer. ActivMedia's Third Semi-Annual Study of Net Marketers, a tracking study conducted among over 1100 randomly selected web marketers. Companies that know what they're doing are making money -- and lots of it! * * * A special arrangement has been made with the publishers of this outstanding new report, offering an exclusive discount to HPCwire readers! For details on the report and special discount, retrieve item 7169. ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 10148 ) FEATURES: IBM TARGETS UNIX, NT MARKETS WITH JUNIOR MAINFRAME | | 10155 ) SCIENCE NEWS: STRUCTURAL BIOINFORMATICS RAISES $2.5M FOR RESEARCH | | 10158 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: SEQUENT DEMOS 4-TERABYTE DATA WAREHOUSE | | 10160 ) NEWS BRIEFS: ITC VOTES TO INVESTIGATE CRAY'S CHARGES AGAINST NEC | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 10148 ) IBM'S NEW CMOS JUNIOR MAINFRAME TARGETS UNIX AND NT MARKETS.......8.3K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large IBM is attacking the middle-range server market with a new entry-level mainframe package. Faster CMOS chips and other new enhancements are intended to maintain momentum for the S/390 mainframe line. 10149 ) PARALLEL PERFORMANCE PROJECT EVALUATES, OPTIMIZES HPC CODE........7.1K by Alan Beck, editor in chief Researchers at the Advanced Computer Architecture Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Michigan have set out to develop and implement automated means of assessing the potential performance of applications on targeted supercomputers, high performance workstations and parallel computer systems. 10150 ) HIGH PERFORMANCE FORTRAN: PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS...................7.2K Guest Commentary by Ken Kennedy Slow progress, unavailability of debugging and performance-tuning tools and the need for additional features to provide high-level support for irregular problems have all contributed to the slow maturation of HPF compilers. But there is good news, too. Ken Kennedy, director of the Center for Research on Parallel Computation at Rice University shares his views on compiler progress. 10151 ) CHAIR OF MPC SYMPOSIUM EXPLORES PETAFLOPS FRONTIER................6.4K by Alan Beck, editor in chief George Lake, professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Washington, talks with HPCwire about the petaflops initiative, its challenges and its expected impact on the HPC community. 10152 ) MINISUPERCOMPUTERS RETURN FROM THE CRYPT OF THE 1980s.............7.4K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Minisupercomputers have been reborn as the entry-level packages now featured by Japanese vendors and IBM mainframers as well as leading HPC vendors in the US. Not as romantic as the old minisupers, but they sell better. 10153 ) WIDE-SPREAD USE OF PARALLEL SYSTEMS IS KEY TO FUTURE..............6.8K by Alan Beck, editor in chief HPCwire discusses the future of parallel systems with Allan Gottlieb, co-author of Highly Parallel Computing. Faster microprocessors, lack of software and converging architectures are all painted into the landscape of the future. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 10154 ) GEOPHYSICISTS USE T3D TO REVISE PLATE TECTONICS THEORY............4.4K Two geophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley have reportedly used the Cray T3D at Los Alamos National Laboratory to solve the long-standing geology puzzle -- why the Earth's crustal plates are so large. 10155 ) STRUCTURAL BIOINFORMATICS COMPLETES FIRST ROUND FINANCING.........2.8K To date, Structural Bioinformatics has raised $2.5 million to finance its research into information transfer technology that automatically converts gene sequence data into 3-D structures of protein drug targets. COMMERCIAL NEWS 10156 ) HITACHI INTRODUCES NEW DATABASE SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY.................5.3K Hitachi Computer Products this week introduced THOR, The Hitachi Object Relational Database System. The new system combines Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) server hardware with a high-performance object- relational database management system. 10157 ) 15 BANKS AND IBM TO OFFER ELECTRONIC BANKING AND COMMERCE.........3.6K Representing over half the retail banking population in North America, over 60 million households, the Integrion Financial Network will be owned and operated by the member banks and IBM. 10158 ) SEQUENT DEMONSTRATES 4-TERABYTE DATA WAREHOUSE....................2.1K During a recent Oracle Warehouse Terabyte Test-to-Scale, Sequent used a 10-processor Symmetry 5000 SE80 SMP system running Oracle's Universal Server (release 7.3.2) and 64 CLARiiON RAID 5 disk array subsystems, each supporting over 64 GB of data. The database's largest table was almost 800 GB and contained over 6 billion records. 10159 ) IBM OPENS $47 MILLION BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE COMPLEX...............4.5K The first in a number of planned initiatives that will help businesses use IBM Business Intelligence systems, software and services, the Teraplex Complex is a scalable, "real-world" center designed to test live analysis and data mining applications. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 10153 ) "Today, there's a real fear that if you work hard on building a great system, you'll come out a year later with technology that's two generations behind." -- Allan Gottlieb, co-author of Highly Parallel Computing __________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_____________________________ | 7170 ) MAXIMUM STRATEGY Server Saves Ford $1,000,0000 | | 7171 ) ANCOR COMMUNICATIONS Offers FREE High-Speed Switching White Paper | | 7141 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer -- | | Your Guide to What's News on the Web | | 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 ================================================================== 10160 ) ITC Will Proceed with Supercomputing Dumping Investigation......4.7K 10161 ) Japanese Computer Makers Challenge Cray, Openness of US Market..1.7K 10162 ) NAG Announces Optimized Fortran 90 Compiler for SPARCstations...2.3K 10163 ) NIH Selects Excalibur Information Retrieval Products............1.7K 10164 ) RSA Data Security Opens East Coast Research Facility............1.9K 10165 ) Toronto Dominion Bank Licenses SQL Financials' Software...........2K 10166 ) End-to-End Internet Transport Service Selects FORE Technology...1.8K 10167 ) Digital Will Acquire Magatek 3-D Graphics Technology............2.4K 10168 ) E-Systems Wins $193M Defense Information Systems Contract.......1.5K 10169 ) JVC Taps Pinnacle Genie 3-D Effects Card........................1.7K 10170 ) Nichols Research Captures $100M More in HPCM and DISC Contracts.1.5K 10171 ) IEEE Computer Entrepreneur Award Nominations Due Sept. 18.......2.2K 10172 ) Nortel Introduces Multi-Wavelength 80 Gbps Optical Repeater.....1.2K 10173 ) Tandem Licenses Informix DataBlade for Use with Himalaya........3.4K SHORT TAKES 10174 ) Product Watch: Informix Online Extended Parallel Server 8.1 Thinking Machines Ports Darwin to Sun Ultra MainView Supports IBM S/390 Upgrades..............18K 10175 ) Corporate Liaisons: New Distributor for DG's AViiON Products Sun May License ICA Distributed Windows Protocol Mitsubishi Extends Committment to Forte.........11.1K 10176 ) Financial Update: Symbios Forms Storage and Semiconductor Divisions EMC Hits $100M in Symmetrix Data Migration Sales.4.1K 10177 ) People & Promotions: New Marketing Manager at Portland Group....5.3K JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc., San Diego Supercomputing Center, IBM Corp., Raytheon E-Systems, Sun Microsystems, Nichols Research..3K 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated Sept. 12, 1996)..........11K 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 935) Silicon Graphics | |____________________________________________________________________________| Firms with a star (*) have updated their material within the last 30 days. -------------------- * -------------------- To date HPCwire has delivered 1,495,291 articles to HPC professionals worldwide *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 10121 ) PARALLEL PROCESSING IN 1998......................................7.1K 10124 ) WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL COMPUTING SITES LIST AUTHOR SHARES INSIGHT..11K 10122 ) PAPERS DEVELOPS NOVEL SUPERCOMPUTING CAPABILITY FOR NOWS.........8.7K 10135 ) Digital Unveils New 64-Bit Alpha Servers, Posts Benchmarks.......2.6K 10178 ) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire..........1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~