H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** Jan. 10, 1997: Vol. 6, No. 01 Circulation: 16,279 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 292 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 -------------------- * -------------------- 70073 ) "Technology Update: High Performance Fortran," a bulletin by Chris Willard of International Data Corp. (IDC), provides an in-depth look at the state of the HPF language and its impact on the evolving HPC market. Reserve your free copy of this report to learn more about HPF and what it means to your organization. ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | 10564 ) FEATURES: TAIWAN SEES ITS ECONOMIC FUTURE IN COMPUTERS | | 10568 ) SCIENCE NEWS: NCAR CONSIDERING $1.5M EXEMPLAR PURCHASE | | 10572 ) COMMERCIAL NEWS: RAID ADVISORY BOARD CREATES NEW DISK RATINGS | | 10578 ) NEWS BRIEFS: REUTERS SELECTS NCR TO EXPAND DATA WAREHOUSE | |____________________________________________________________________________| FEATURES ===================================================================== * HPCwire editor at large Norris Parker Smith spent two weeks last August and most of December in Asia. His preliminary impressions on the overall computing scenes in Taiwan and Japan are published this week. More specific reports will follow later. * 10564 ) TAIWAN: ADVENTURES IN A COMPUTEROCRACY...........................10.9K Report by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Taiwan sees its economic future in computers. Its industry, government, and academe are working hard to maintain the agility demanded by the PC market while moving upscale. The next step: microprocessors. 10565 ) JAPAN: MORE FORWARD MOTION, OR SIDEWAYS?..........................7.8K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large HPC and other computer sectors in Japan are moving forward, but they could be held back by Japan's poor overall economic health and the reluctance of the traditional system to permit real competition. 10566 ) HPC IN 1996 AND 1997: AN INTERVIEW WITH LARRY SMARR...............8.2K by Alan Beck, editor in chief Larry Smarr, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reviews key trends that have emerged in HPC during the last year and points out important directions the industry may take in the near future. 10567 ) HOWARD RICHMOND OFFERS VIEWS ON CHANGING HPC MARKETPLACE..........5.5K by Alan Beck, editor in chief To obtain a better perspective on key shifts in the HPC market that have taken place over the past year, HPCwire interviewed Howard Richmond, vice president of the Gartner Group. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS 10568 ) REPORT OF NCAR CONSIDERING $1.5M EXEMPLAR PURCHASE................3.1K A report has emerged indicating that NCAR is giving serious consideration to purchasing an Exemplar supercomputer from Hewlett-Packard's Convex Division. The issue was first raised by John Markoff in the New York Times, and Bill Buzbee discussed the matter with HPCwire. 10569 ) CTC TO TRIPLE COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITY............................3.3K The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) announced plans for a major upgrade to its supercomputing resources that will triple the computational capability that it makes available to the national research community. 10570 ) REASON FOUNDATION STUDY FAVORS PRIVATIZING FEDERAL R&D LABS.......5.9K With the demise of the Cold War and shifting federal budget priorities, a number of federal agencies which operate important research and development (R&D) labs have been threatened with budget cuts or outright abolition. 10571 ) ROBOTS, VIRTUAL REALITY, "SMART" TOOLS TO HELP PHYSICIANS.........5.6K Physicians are looking forward to utilizing voice-controlled surgical instruments, navigational systems to guide surgical tools, three- dimensional images projected onto patients in the operating room and similar technologies. COMMERCIAL NEWS 10572 ) RAID ADVISORY BOARD CREATES NEW DISK SYSTEM CLASSIFICATION........6.2K The RAID Advisory Board (RAB) has unveiled a new rating guide for disk systems based on their data availability properties and designed to provide simplified but more insightful information to customers. 10573 ) OPEN GROUP ANNOUNCES ACTIVEX CORE TECH/DCE INTEGRATION PROJECT....2.4K The Open Group, an organization for the advancement of open systems, has announced the ActiveX Core Technologies/DCE (ACD) collaborative technology development project. 10574 ) COMPAQ LAUNCHES NT-BASED WORKSTATIONS IN PHILIPPINES..............2.9K A Newsbytes article has reported that Compaq Compter Corp, encouraged by a broadening concept of "workstation", has launched the Professional Workstation 5000 series in the Philippines. 10575 ) 35 INTERNET COMPANIES FORM VRML CONSORTIUM........................7.2K 35 Internet leaders have united to form the non-profit VRML Consortium, an organization dedicated to making 3D a key component of the Internet and Enterprise environment. 10576 ) SMP MOVES TO THE DESKTOP..........................................6.5K With a growing number of new PCs sporting sockets for not one but two Pentium Pro CPUs, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) is making a bid for the business desktop, a Ziff-Davis article by Keith Kirkpatrick recently reported. 10577 ) MANAGEMENT GROUP TO PURCHASE MSCI FROM CRAY RESEARCH..............3.9K Cray Research, Inc., the supercomputing subsidiary of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), announced that it will spin off its Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc. (MSCI) as an independent entity that will be owned and operated by the center's current management. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ 10566 ) "We're at the end of the company shake-out. But we still have two to three years of product shake-out to come within the big three companies." -- Larry Smarr, director of NCSA ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_____________________________ | | |70074 ) FREE Trial Subscription to WEBster, The Cyberspace Surfer -- | | Your Guide to What's News on the Web | |70075 ) WHAT DO USERS WANT FROM HPC PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? | | A Special State-of-the-Industry Report | |70076 ) The Real Numbers Behind Net Profits | | * The Largest Study of Web Marketers Ever Conducted * | |70077 ) PGI, CRPC and LANL invite you to attend the First Annual | | HPF User Group Meeting | |___________________________________________________________________________| NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== 10578 ) Reuters Selects NCR To Expand Its Data Warehouse................3.1K 10579 ) Allison Survey Notes Slowing Growth Rate for RISC Revenues......1.8K 10580 ) Schlumberger Unveils Secure Smart Card..........................1.9K 10581 ) FORE Systems Links Higher Learning in Pennsylvania..............2.2K 10582 ) Publisher Opts for Bay Corporate Network........................1.7K 10583 ) Hewlett-Packard Installs Network Solution in Hotel & Casino.....1.5K 10584 ) Collaborative Clinical, IBM Complete Pilot Test of DataTrak.....1.5K 10585 ) Computer Sciences Wins U.S. Army Contract.......................1.6K 10586 ) U.S. Defense Dept. to Adopt Drexler's "DELA" Format Lasercard...1.4K 10587 ) ECS Designs & Installs Corporate Network for DowElanco..........1.6K 10588 ) Flextronics Provides Support for Rapid City's Gigabit Switches....2K 10589 ) HP 9000 Server Posts Benchmark for SmartStream 4.1..............1.1K 10590 ) India Grants Clearance To Cray Research Subsidiary..............2.5K 10591 ) IBM Demos Hard Disk with 5 Gb per Square Inch.....................2K 10592 ) Mercury Gets $5 Million Contract for Sub Sonar Computers........2.3K 10593 ) Siemens Nixdorf Commits To Intel's 64-Bit Merced................1.4K 10594 ) NuTec Uses Ross Tech's Pdt In Seismic Migration Center..........1.4K 10595 ) Oracle Posts TPC-C Benchmark on IBM RS/6000 Clustered SMP.......1.5K 10596 ) Oracle Develops Video Server for SGI Origin2000 Servers.........1.4K 10597 ) Sense8 Extends Network With Appointment of Vianova AB..........1.1K 10598 ) Ross Tech Selects Computervision as Preferred Provider..........1.4K 10599 ) Symantec Offers Speed Disk for NT 4.0...........................1.2K 10600 ) Seagate Software to Support Tivoli's Multi-Platform Mngr. API...2.2K SHORT TAKES 10601 ) Product Watch: Dell, 3Com Combine Server & Hub. Microsoft......16.7K Ships Advanced Data Connector. 10602 ) Financial Update: Micro Linear Will Buy $2.6M of its Stock.......12K EMC Sells Storage Systems to Comdisco. 10603 ) Corporate Liaisons: Intersolv Joins Oracle Open Tools............10K Initiative. Bay Networks Will Buy Netics. 10604 ) People and Positions: Mark Kent Named Treasurer, LSI Logic......1.6K Buchheim Named ICE President. JOB BANK ===================================================================== 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: SGI/Cray at Los Alamos, PGI, Raytheon E-Systems (2), University of Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory (2), National Center for Atmospheric Research, IBM Corp..............................................................8.3K 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations...................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 01.10.97).................3K 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) MAXSTRAT* 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 938) VNI* | |__________________________________________________________________________| Firms marked with an * have updated their info within the last 30 days. -------------------- * -------------------- To date HPCwire has delivered 1,586,279 articles and product announcements to HPC professionals worldwide *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** 10563) NEWSFLASH: ONE TERAFLOPS BROKEN BY SANDIA/INTEL SYSTEM........6.2K 10537) JACK DONGARRA NOTES VIEWS ON PROPRIETARY BENCHMARKS...........7.7K 10538) LANL AND DEC LINK WORKSTATIONS................................5.6K 10539) OCEAN MODELING CODE BENEFITS FROM HIGH PERFORMANCE FORTRAN....5.5K 10605) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire.......1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~