H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Nov. 28, 1996: Vol. 5, No. 48 Circulation: 16,717 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 240 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 -------------------- * -------------------- 70059 ) IBM and Oracle announced that their combined Oracle 7 and IBM RS/6000 SP solution has achieved a new price/performance TPC-D 300 GB benchmark record. In establishing the record, the companies also combined to deliver the fastest-ever TPC-D on an IBM RS/6000 SP and significantly surpassed all previous 300 GB TPC-D price/performance numbers achieved on competitive platforms. ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 10485 ) FEATURES: SUPERCOMPUTING '96 & PROPOSALS FOR THE "CRAY" | | 10489 ) SCIENCE NEWS: INTEL'S ASCI RED HITS 200 GFLOPS | | 10493 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: IBM PLANS FOLLOW-ON TO DB2 | | 10494 ) NEWS BRIEFS: WHITE HOUSE BLOCKS SALE OF SUPERCOMPUTERS TO RUSSIA | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== 10485 ) HITS & HISSES: SUPERCOMPUTING '96 & PROPOSALS FOR THE "CRAY"......7.2K Compiled by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Comments on more active outreach for Supercomputing XY and three separate proposals for the "Cray" as a measurement of one thing or another. 10486 ) FEDERAL HPCC PROGRAM NOTES NEW DIRECTIONS FOR FY 97...............3.3K by Alan Beck, editor in chief In his forward to the just-released HPCC Program report outlining new directions for FY 1997 John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, observes that there has been a "creation of a broader R&D agenda that reflects long-term efforts in advanced computing, information, and communications technologies..." 10487 ) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR..............................................18K DKRZ's Mike Ashworth disputes Cray's T3E 900 claim to be the first teraflop system, and Cray's Mardi Larson responds. Strategic Systems Planning Inc.'s Jerry Meach takes issue with an ITG study cited by Norris Parker Smith on the relative costs of UNIX servers and mainframes. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 10488 ) PARALLEL COMPUTING ENABLES DISCOVERY OF PARKINSON'S GENETIC LINK....3K The Nov. 15 issue of Science noted discovery of the general location of a gene that can cause Parkinson's disease in certain groups. The research was made possible in part by advances in parallel computing made at Rice University. 10489 ) INTEL'S ASCI RED PROJECT HITS 200 GFLOPS MILESTONE................4.2K exclusive to HPCwire by Jan Rowell Using just a fraction of the teraflops supercomputer it is building for the Department of Energy, Intel harnesses 1376 Intel Pentium Pro processors to hit 213 Gflops on the MP Linpack benchmark. 10490 ) CLUSTER OF MULTI-PROCESSOR SYSTEMS PROJECT LAUNCHED AT NERSC......7.8K Mass manufacturing and high speed computer networks -- exploit both and you will build the supercomputer of the future. That's the conviction of researchers at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 10491 ) PSC, OAK RIDGE, SANDIA TEAM WINS HPC CHALLENGE CONCURRENCY GOLD...3.4K A collaborative effort among three of the nation's computational research centers has succeeded in winning a Gold Medal in the Concurrency category of the High Performance Computing Challenge at Supercomputing '96. COMMERCIAL NEWS 10492 ) BANKERS TRUST SELECTS OBJECTSTORE FOR RISK MANAGEMENT TRADING.....2.5K A major international investment bank has selected an object database over a traditional relational database as a key component of its new, risk management trading system. 10493 ) IBM PLANS MAJOR FOLLOW-ON TO DB2 UNIVERSAL DATABASE...............2.7K A Newsbytes article by Jacqueline Emigh has reported that IBM plans to unveil a major follow-on to DB2, equipped with parallel query, World Wide Web-based administration, online transaction processing (OLTP) and other enhancements. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 10487 ) I believe that any company which has not begun migration of legacy applications away from mainframe technology should take a strong look at their long range plans. -- Jerry Meach, Strategic Systems Planning, Inc. ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_____________________________ | | | 70060 ) ECMWF and PDC, the Parallel Research Center at KTH Univ., | | Stockholm, Accept FUJITSU VPP Systems. | | 70061 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer -- | | Your Guide to What's News on the Web | | 70062 ) WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? | | A Special State-of-the-Industry Report | | 70063 ) The Real Numbers Behind Net Profits | | * The Largest Study of Web Marketers Ever Conducted * | | 70064 ) DB/EXPO '96 NEW YORK AT JAVITS CONVENTION CTR. DEC. 3 - 5, 1996 | |___________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 10494 ) White House Blocks Sale of Supercomputers to Russia...............2K 10495 ) Data Dimensions to License Year 2000 Process to German Firm.....1.6K 10496 ) Mentor Graphics Creates Synthesis Center of Excellence..........1.5K 10497 ) Mercury and MSU Demo Heterogenous Portability at SC'96..........1.6K 10498 ) Ciprico Disk Arrays Play Key Role in Warner Bros' Space Jam.....1.6K 10499 ) Dolphin Interconnect Announces ASCI Tools Agreement with IBM....1.7K 10500 ) Auspex Installs 2000th Network Data Server at AMD...............1.6K 10501 ) Cisco Europe Unveils "Cut Through Proxy" Firewall Systems.......1.2K 10502 ) SeaChange, IPC Interactive Bring VOD System to Cable Operators..2.1K 10503 ) Embratel Chooses Wandel & Goltermann For Test Equipment.........1.7K SHORT TAKES 10504 ) Product Watch: Dolphin Intros Multiprocessor Tool Enhancements..4.8K Ancor Announces Fibre Channel PCI for SGI 02. 10505 ) Financial Updates: Siemens Nixdorf Profits Up...................2.7K EMC Will Redeem 2001 Notes. 10506 ) Corporate Liaisons: Dolphin Acquires BBN's Toolworks............3.8K Sattel Selects Critical Tech. for Customer Aid. 10507 ) People and Positions: Four Data General Execs Made Senior VPs.....6K Jim Adams to Head Sync Europe. JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: Raytheon E-Systems, National Center for Atmospheric Research, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, IBM Corp., University of Illinois..............................................1.8K 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations...................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 11.27.96).................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. Ctr. 930) HNSX Supercomputers 932) Portland Group | | 921) Cray Research Inc.* 902) IBM Corp. 915) Genias Software | | 909) Fujitsu 935) Silicon Graphics | |__________________________________________________________________________| -------------------- * -------------------- To date HPCwire has delivered 1,574,354 articles and product announcements to HPC professionals worldwide *** LIVEwire's MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 60031 HPCwire TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SGI/CRAY ROADMAP..............5.4K 60018 SUPERCOMPUTING '96: IS IT KEEPING IN STEP WITH CHANGE?...........4.7K 60032 BLOCH: "GUSH UP" HAS REPLACED "TRICKLE-DOWN" IN HPC TECHNOLOGY...5.3K 70050 CRAY RESEARCH ANNOUNCES WORLD'S FIRST COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE.....5.5K 10508 TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S LIVEwire.........1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Next week in HPCwire * Norris Parker Smith offers decade and year-end reviews of HPC.