H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** May 9, 1997: Vol. 6, No. 18 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 298 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 -------------------- * -------------------- [ ] 70181) INNOVATION KEEPS SONY AT THE FOREFRONT OF DATA STORAGE Update on the latest new products at the high and low ends of the HPC data storage spectrum from Sony Data Systems Division --from our multimedia PetaSites to our DTF (TM) 12 Mbyte/sec drive ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | [ ] 11172) FEATURES: NORRIS SMITH REVIEWS BRIAN THOMAS' INTERNET BOOK | | [ ] 11178) SCIENCE NEWS: SANDIA SUPERCOMPUTER SIMULATES COMET IMPACT | | [ ] 11182) COMMERCIAL NEWS: STATE DEPT, EC WON'T SUPPORT NEW DNS PLAN | | [ ] 11186) NEWS BRIEFS: PSC RECEIVES $2M GRANT FROM PENNSYLVANIA | |____________________________________________________________________________| [ ] 70182) ONLY ONE WEEK REMAINS To Submit SC97 Technical Paper Extended Abstracts by Friday, May 16 Deadline FEATURES ===================================================================== [ ] 11172 ) GOT WEBFUSION OR NET IGNORANCE? ASK BRIAN THOMAS..............6.6K Review by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large The third edition of a comprehensive book -- The Internet for Scientists and Engineers, by Brian J. Thomas -- combines a solid, clearly-presented guide to the workings of the Internet with an informative directory to Internet resources and Web sites for 21 specialties within science and engineering. [ ] 11173 ) INTEL ADMITS FPU FLAW IN PENTIUM PRO AND PENTIUM II..........16.6K by Alan Beck, editor in chief Intel spokesman Howard High has confirmed for HPCwire that reports by Reuter's News Service and the Wall Street Journal of a bug in the floating point unit of the Pentium Pro and new Pentium II microprocessors have validity. [ ] 11174 ) HPCN 97: QUO VADIS HPCN EUROPE? A FIRST PERSON VIEW...........6.6K Special to HPCwire by Uwe Harms The owner of Harms-Supercomputing-Consulting in Munich gives an overview of this year's High-Performance Computing and Networking Conference and Exhibition -- HPCN Europe 97, held in Vienna from April 28-30. [ ] 11175 ) CORP DATA TO BIZ INTELLIGENCE: AN INTERVIEW WITH VASANT DHAR...12K by Alan Beck, editor in chief To learn more about how techniques that embed artificial intelligence or represent knowledge can lever the power of datasets in business environments, HPCwire interviewed the co-author of "Seven Ways of Transforming Corporate Data into Business Intelligence". SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS [ ] 11176 ) NEW APPROACH FOR DRUG DESIGN SUPPORTED BY SDSC STUDY..........8.6K An international team led by chemists at the University of California, San Diego has used computational resources of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to link the three-dimensional structure of a molecule to its behavior. [ ] 11177 ) WORKSTATION "SPARE TIME" ADVANCES FACTORIZATION RESEARCH......6.9K Volunteers from around the world are contributing the "spare time" of a large number of workstations to perform leading-edge factorization research pursued by Samuel Wagstaff, professor of computer science at Purdue University. [ ] 11178 ) SANDIA SUPERCOMPUTER SIMULATES COMET IMPACT...................5.1K To effect a simulation that would be of general interest to the scientific community, Sandia scientist David Crawford has carried out a computational simulation of a kilometer-wide comet striking the ocean. [ ] 11179 ) NSF AWARDS GRANT FOR CONNECTING RESEARCH NETWORKS............10.4K Three Illinois research institutions are working as partners with Ameritech Advanced Data Services to establish an interconnection point that will enable the exchange of high-speed network traffic among research institutions worldwide. [ ] 11180 ) IBM RESEARCHERS CREATE NEW PUBLIC-KEY ENCRYPTION SYSTEM.......3.6K Computer scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. have created a new public-key encryption scheme that relies on the difficulty of finding a "unique shortest vector" in an n-dimensional lattice. [ ] 11181 ) VIDEO ROUTING CONTROL SOFTWARE AVAILABLE FROM CTC.............2.5K A Cornell University student and a CTC staff member have developed a freely available piece of software that will help smooth out one of the tedious and time-consuming aspects of creating videos. COMMERCIAL NEWS [ ] 11182 ) STATE DEPT & EC REFUSE TO SUPPORT NEW INTERNET DNS PLAN.......4.2K by Dianna Husum, editor/publisher Web-Vantage The U.S. State Department and the European Commission (EC) have announced that they will not support the Internet Domain Name System Memorandum of Understanding on Generic Top Level Domains signed by 57 international organizations. [ ] 11183 ) SGI UNDERGOES OPERATIONS RESTRUCTURING, 2 EXECS RESIGN........3.2K Silicon Graphics Inc has formed three new operating units in an effort to realign the company to focus on core businesses and growth markets. [ ] 11184 ) TPC ANNOUNCES SURVEY OF NEXT-GENERATION BENCHMARK.............4.8K The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) sent out a formal request for industry input on the next major revision of its TPC-C benchmark, one of the most widely accepted measures of online transaction processing (OLTP) performance. [ ] 11185 ) UNISYS IMPLEMENTS IMAGING, WORKFLOW SOLUTION AT EMC INSURANCE...5K Unisys Corp has implemented a major, Windows NT-based turnkey solution to handle imaging and workflow underwriting at EMC Insurance Companies, Des Moines, Iowa. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ [ ] 11173 ) "It is often desirable to store the 80-bit floating point numbers as integer numbers. Sometimes the converted number won't fit into the smaller integer format. This is when the bug occurs." -- Robert Collins, engineer, on the Pentium Pro & Pentium II bug ___________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS____________________________ [ ] 70183) NEC Systems Lab has opportunities in Seattle/San Jose for Product Marketing Mgr; Japanese Lang. Windows NT Test; Windows 95/NT Kernel Driver Engineers. [ ] 70184) Digital Equipment Corporation has immediate openings for professionals in HPC computing and high-performance, 64-bit UNIX and clusters. [ ] 70185) Mercury Computer Systems' high performance, heterogeneous, embedded multicomputing solutions is fueling opportunities for skilled professionals. [ ] 70186) Indiana University Announces Search for Qualified Computer Graphics Professionals with immersive VR and CAVE Experience. __________________________________________________________________________ NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== [ ] 11186) PSC Secures $2 Million Grant from Pennsylvania.................1.2K [ ] 11187) Ratification of MPI Standard v2.0 Announced....................1.6K [ ] 11188) Deep Blue, Kasparov Tied as They Enter Game Five...............2.1K [ ] 11189) Petroleum Geo-Services Wins $50 Million Contract...............2.4K [ ] 11190) Finalists for Computerworld/Smithsonian Awards Use SGI/Cray....1.4K [ ] 11191) Northrop Grumman and Logicon Announce Merger.....................2K [ ] 11192) DRS Gets $9.3 Million Navy Workstation Subcontract.............1.2K [ ] 11193) Kenan Announces Benchmark Test Results for Arbor/BP..............2K [ ] 11194) Benchmark Tests Reveal Speed/Performance of NUMA-Q 2000........1.8K [ ] 11195) Sprint Awards Major Contract to Alcatel Data Networks..........1.7K [ ] 11196) Auspex Claims 99.986 Percent Uptime Performance................1.9K [ ] 11197) Middle East Banks Form ATM Networks With ACI Software..........1.7K [ ] 11198) Carnival Cruise Implements Unisys Imaging Solution.............1.7K [ ] 11199) HAN, Inc Selects Forte for Electronic Commerce Solutions.......1.9K [ ] 11200) TimeStep Demonstrates IPSec Interoperability...................1.5K [ ] 11201) Sisters Take First Place in H.S. Supercomputing Challenge......1.5K SHORT TAKES [ ] 11202) Product Watch: Sun Intros 300MHz Ultra 2 Workstations.........45.2K Unisys Rolls Out New Aquanta Servers. Fujitsu Launches Pentium II-Based Servers. [ ] 11203) Financial Update: Storage Tech Posts Record Q1 Net Income......7.4K Ancor Announces Q1 Results. Informix Notes Q1 Loss. [ ] 11204) Corporate Liaisons: Red Brick Expands PaVER Partner Roster....16.7K Storage Tech, Imation to Develop Storage Platform. Sybase Inks Euro Distribution Deal. [ ] 11205) People and Positions: John P. Snyder Dies......................2.6K SGI CFO Resigns. Kathleen Fisher Named Borland CFO. JOB BANK ===================================================================== [ ] 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: Maui HPCC, Industrial Light & Magic, IBM, Univ. of Illinois, Indiana University, Sun Microsystems, HP Labs, University of Maryland........3K [ ] 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations.................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== [ ] 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 05.08.97)..............16K 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 | | [ ] 934) HP/Convex Tech. Center. [ ] 930) HNSX Supercomputers* | | [ ] 909) Fujitsu [ ] 902) IBM Corp. | | [ ] 937) Digital Equipment [ ] 932) Portland Group | | [ ] 938) Visual Numerics* [ ] 940) Eudora | | [ ] 941) HAL Computers [ ] 942) Sun Microsystems* | | [ ] 921) Silicon Graphics/Cray Research* [ ] 943) Northrop Grumman* | | [ ] 944) Raytheon E-Systems* | |__________________________________________________________________________| Firms marked with an * have updated their info within the last 30 days. -------------------- * -------------------- This year, HPCwire proudly celebrates its fifth consecutive year of service to the scientific, academic, and industrial communities: 1992-1997. To date HPCwire has delivered 1,707,131 articles and product announcements to HPC professionals worldwide. *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** [ ] 11125) BURTON SMITH DISCUSSES DEVELOPMENTS AT TERA...................7.9K [ ] 11126) BIGGEST CHALLENGE AT LLNL ASCI SITE: TBYTES, NOT TFLOPS.......3.8K [ ] 11134) SGI Notes Opening of European Technology Centre...............2.3K [ ] 11128) NCSA UPGRADES ITS HP EXEMPLAR SYSTEM TO X-CLASS...............3.7K [ ] 11206) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire.......1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~