H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Oct. 11, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 42 Circulation: 16,413 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 141 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 -------------------- * -------------------- 7182 ) Maximum Strategy's New Relationship With Fujitsu's HPC Group Off To A Roaring Start With Several TB's Of Storage Shipments Booked For Fourth Quarter `96 ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 10281 ) FEATURES: SGI/CRAY DUMPS SMP, GOES FOR SCALABLE NUMA | | 10286 ) SCIENCE NEWS: NSF ANNOUNCES NEW CISE INITIATIVES | | 10288 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: SUN INTRODUCES NEW CLUSTER SYSTEMS | | 10290 ) NEWS BRIEFS: CRAY RESEARCH ISSUES STATEMENT ON FOUNDER'S DEATH | |____________________________________________________________________________| 7181 ) SONY Unveils 3-Petabyte Tape Library System and High Performance Tape Drives At Free Application Seminar in Los Angeles on October 23 and 24. FEATURES ===================================================================== 10281 ) SGI/CRAY DUMPS SMP, GOES FOR SCALABLE NUMA.......................12.2K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large SGI has ripped out its Challenge SMP products and replanted with the bright green shoots of a bus-free NUMA architecture and a new quasi- microkernel OS. Will this new cultivation blossom or grow into a field of thorns? 10282 ) DAVE GUSTAVSON ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT SCI: PART II..............13.2K by Alan Beck, editor in chief In the second of three features, one of SCI's principal developers addresses issues including the labyrinthine path toward commercialization, media treatment of SCI, and the relative suitability of this technology within various contexts. 10283 ) IBM LAUNCHES BRAND NEW CHIP FAMILY FOR THE RS/6000 LINE.............4K News Analysis by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large IBM announces the P2SC, a single-chip successor to the Power2 (Rios-2) processor with 75 percent more kick, now available for SP nodes and due for use in the 1997 upgrade of Asci Blue at Livermore. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 10284 ) ESPRIT'S CAESAR PROJECT REPORTS ON PROGRESS.......................5.4K For a year, 13 European partners in ESPRIT's CAESAR project have explored the potential of various facets of high performance computing and networking for utilization within the manufacturing industry. Now, a status report has been issued. 10285 ) HUGHES WINS $13 MILLION CONTRACT TO MODERNIZE CLIMATOLOGY CENTER..2.9K The US Air Force's premier climatology center, which supports operations worldwide, will be the subject of an intensive modernization program involving, among other things, a new relational database with over 1.5 TB of mass storage capability. 10286 ) NSF "DEAR COLLEAGUE" LETTER ON CISE INITIATIVES...................6.3K In FY97, CISE will introduce continuing initiatives to be implemented through collaborative research. Funding will be available in areas such as Experimental Software Systems, Special Projects in Networking and Communications, and Challenges in Computer Science and Engineering. COMMERCIAL NEWS 10287 ) SURVEY NOTES NEED FOR IMPROVED PLANT DATA COMMUNICATION...........5.7K As the need for more highly sophisticated instrumentation and communication of measurement burgeons in factories, more users are expressing serious dissatisfaction with the options currently available to service such critical requirements. 10288 ) SUN DEBUTS NEW CLUSTER SYSTEMS....................................6.3K Sun's new turnkey clusters have been designed to maximize customer uptime and include tailored data service modules for use with Informix XPS, ORACLE 7 RDBMS, NFSTM, or Sybase MPP. They feature a proprietary cluster channel for extremely fast connections between nodes. 10289 ) IA IMPLEMENTS CLIENT/SERVER CHECK IMAGE ARCHIVE...................2.7K The first implementation of IA Corp's client/server check image archive based on IA CheckVision software and Nearline technology from StorageTek will be at Union Bank of California. The system is expected to save one million check images per day. Total system capacity is three billion check images. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 10282 ) "It's very hard to keep the media enthused about an abstraction, and that's what SCI remains until people can actually buy SCI-interface products." -- David B. Gustavson, research professor, Santa Clara University __________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_____________________________ | 7179 ) Maximum Strategy, SGI, Other Leaders In High Bandwidth Seminar. | | 7178 ) CC-NUMA Architecture and PA 8000 Power: Hewlett Packard's New | | EXEMPLAR S- and X- Class Systems Lead In Scalable Performance | | 7172 ) High End Storage Industry Growth Fuels DATATAPE Expansion | | 7180 ) 3DOME: Virtualizing Reality Into a 3D Model: Takeo Kanade, Dir. | | Robotics, Carnegie Mellon To Speak At Supercomputing `96. | | 7174 ) Open Microsystems to Provide SCSI Device Performance For Function-| | Enabling Software for MAXIMUM STRATEGY's S-Series Storage Servers | | 7176 ) IBM Announces New Hierarchical High Performance Storage System | | 7141 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer -- | | Your Guide to What's News on the Web | | 7122 ) WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? | | A Special State-of-the-Industry Report | | 7169 ) The Real Numbers Behind Net Profits | | * The Largest Study of Web Marketers Ever Conducted * | |__________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 10290 ) Cray Research's Statement on the Death of Seymour Cray..........2.5K 10291 ) ARM Combines RISC and DSP on a Single Memory Bus................2.6K 10292 ) Cadence to Merge With HLDS for .35 Micron Solution..............2.2K 10293 ) Thinking Machines Aligns with SRA for Gov't. Data Mining........1.6K 10294 ) Sun's SEC Filings Highlight Challenges..........................2.4K 10295 ) INSCI Wins $1.2 Million IRS Software Maintenance Contract.......1.2K 10296 ) Mitsubishi, Motorola to exchange DRAM, ColdFire Technologies....1.6K 10297 ) HP Awarded $100 Million NASA SEWP-II Contracts..................1.7K 10298 ) Mercury Speeds Production of Explosives Detection Computers.....1.7K 10299 ) World Health Organization Chooses FORE Systems..................1.8K 10300 ) Origin2000 Arrives at Boston University.........................2.3K 10301 ) Data General Completes Clustered Oracle TByte Test-to-Scale.......2K 10302 ) NCSA Purchases 128-Node SGI CRAY Origin2000.....................3.2K 10303 ) CTC to Open Office in New York Information Technology Center....1.6K 10304 ) MacNeal-Schwendler Awarded $700,000 Contract for MCAE Software..1.9K 10305 ) FORE Demonstrates ATM Forum PNNI Compliance.....................1.3K 10306 ) Cisco Continues Commitment to Sequent Servers...................1.4K 10307 ) Altera Announces Verdict in AMD Litigation......................1.6K 10308 ) Tandem and Microsoft Produce Open Payments Solution...............2K 10309 ) Sequent to Provide Business Systems to Western Digital..........1.2K SHORT TAKES 10310 ) Product Watch: ETI & NCR Develop Data Warehousing Product......22.8K Network Peripherals Announces NuCard FDDI SBus. 10311 ) Financial Update: Hummingbird 1996 Sales Exceed CDN$100M........3.6K CSPI Enjoys Sixteenth Profitable Year. StreamLogic Appeals Nasdaq Ruling. 10312 ) Corporate Liaisons: Anthem Agrees to ADIC Tape Libraries........8.5K 10313 ) People & Promotions: Jack Pellicci Joins Scangraphic Board......5.2K JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: Raytheon E-Systems, IBM Corp., Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Cornell University, MIT Lincoln Laboratory (2), Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum (Berlin, Germany), San Diego Supercomputing Center..................................................2.0K 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations..................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 10.10.96)...............6.8K 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 1,523,103 articles to HPC professionals worldwide *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 10249 DAVE GUSTAVSON ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT SCI: PART I................13K 10248 FUJITSU'S MARKETING VP RETIRES, REFLECTS ON FUTURE OF HPC........5.8K 7178 Proven Fourth Generation CC-NUMA Architecture and PA 8000 Power...16K 10257 Exponential to Debut BiCMOS 500-MHZ PowerPC Chip.................1.8K 10314 TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire..........1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~