H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** July 25, 1997: Vol. 6, No. 29 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 275 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 -------------------- * -------------------- [ ] 70350) Cray Research and The Portland Group (PGI) Release HPF_CRAFT Programming Model As Part Of New PGHPF 2.3 Compiler. HPF_CRAFT is an open, standards-based, parallel-programming model designed to take advantage of the unique scalability of the CRAY T3E line of supercomputers. ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | [ ] 11611) FEATURES: VIRTUAL UNREALITY BY NORRIS PARKER SMITH | | [ ] 11618) SCIENCE NEWS: NCSA DEVELOPS NEW METHOD TO PARALLELIZE CODE | | [ ] 11619) COMMERCIAL NEWS: FREE ECON ANALYSIS WEBSITE ANNOUNCED | | [ ] 11623) NEWS BRIEFS: NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE FROM U OF WASHINGTON | |____________________________________________________________________________| [ ] 70351) SC97: High Performance Networking and Computing Invites Participation in New "Science and the Internet: 20 Years" Exhibit FEATURES ===================================================================== [ ] 11611 ) JULY FANTASY: RESCUING HUMANITY FROM THE COMPUGOTCHA..........6.4K Virtual unreality by Norris Parker Smith, editor at small Midsummer Night's illusions. A mock report tells how a hypothetical company might respond to reports of an impossible product. A toy, the Compugotcha, mimics the life-cycle of computers, but includes an OS that never crashes. In the end, acquisition turns failure into success. [ ] 11612 ) THE ENIGMA PROJECT: AN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM SCHULTZ, PART II..21.4K by Alan Beck, editor in chief In this concluding article of a two-part series, Adam Schultz, principal investigator for the U of Cambridge's Enigma Project, discusses strategies for SMP program development in an NT environment, unique approaches to computational geometry and other important aspects of the project. [ ] 11613 ) REVIEW: PLAPACK: SOLUTIONS FOR DENSE LINEAR ALGEBRA...........6.9K Reviewed by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Review: "Using PLAPACK -- Parallel Linear Algebra Package" by Robert A. van de Geijin of UT/Austin. This book from the MIT Press outlines a software package, intended primarily for high-performance dense linear algebra computation, drawing on MPI and BLAS. [ ] 11614 ) EUROPORT: PUTTING HPC TO WORK IN EUROPE.......................4.5K Special to HPCwire by Anton Hirschowitz Potential end-users of HPC technology have typically been unable to convince themselves or their management of the business benefits to be gained through its deployment. The European Commission (EC) has been making strides toward breaking this deadlock in Europe. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS [ ] 11615 ) AUSTRALIAN METEOROLOGISTS, RESEARCHERS TO RECEIVE NEC SX-4......4K NEC announced that an SX-4 supercomputer has been selected by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) to support weather and climate forecasting and scientific research. [ ] 11616 ) BERKELEY LAB WORKSHOP SEEKS METADATA STANDARDS................5.4K At a workshop organized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, computer scientists and other experts from various fields met to discuss standards and practices to improve access to very large stores of data. [ ] 11617 ) SGI SYSTEM INSTALLED BY DUTCH RESEARCH FACILITY...............4.2K An Onyx2 RealityMonster system and Pyramid Systems' immersive virtual environments have been installed at the Foundation Academic Computing Services Amsterdam (SARA) Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) facility. [ ] 11618 ) NCSA RESEARCHERS USE NEW METHOD TO PARALLELIZE CODE...........5.1K Using a new method of parallelization, researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications optimized a code that then broke a record in the field of information retrieval, forming a semantic index for the text of almost 20,000 scientific journal articles. COMMERCIAL NEWS [ ] 11619 ) DOW JONES, INFINITY FNCL, IBM LAUNCH ECON ANALYSIS WEBSITE....4.5K Dow Jones, Infinity Financial Technology and IBM have unveiled a free Web site providing customized risk management analyses previously available only to leading international financial institutions for thousands of dollars per year. [ ] 11620 ) MEXICO'S PEMEX SELECTS FORE SYSTEMS FOR NETWORK...............4.6K Nationwide operations of Petroleos Mexicanos' Gas & Petrochemical Division, PEMEX Gas y Petroquimica Basica (PEMEX), are now utilizing an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network provided by systems integrator Lasser Electronica y Telecomunicaciones and FORE Systems, Inc. [ ] 11621 ) COMPASS REPORTS ON GAINS IN DATA CENTER COST EFFICIENCY.......3.7K Improvements in the world's most efficient data centers over the last 11 years show that such facilities have the potential to be one of the best-performing areas of a business, according to COMPASS management consultants. [ ] 11622 ) NETWORK PERIPHERALS UNVEILS TECHNOLOGY/PRODUCT ROADMAP........4.1K Network Peripherals has announced a technology and product roadmap that it believes will substantially expand the company's target market reach. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ [ ] 11612 ) "We are considering making our 8400 available for testing NT5, and would carry out a benchmark program to compare system performance against the equivalent HPC applications under the Digital Unix environment." -- Adam Schultz, principal investigator, Enigma Project, U of Cambridge __________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_________________________ [ ] 70352) VISUAL NUMERICS IMSL Distributed Network Fortran Library Provides High Performance Mathematics for Distributed Systems [ ] 70353) HPCwire's CAREER TRACK SUPPLEMENT: Reach Over 32,000 HPC Professionals Before Your Competition Does On August 1,1997 [ ] 70354) The MAXSTRAT Gen5 storage servers and NEC's SX-4 system together dramatically increase the accuracy of seismic data and reduce processing lead time. [ ] 70355) QUALCOMM Announces Worldwide Availability Of Eudora Worldmail Server _____________________________________________________________________ NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== [ ] 11623 ) U of Washington Announces New Programming Language............2.1K [ ] 11624 ) ESPRIT's First AIDA Prototype Becomes Operational...............2K [ ] 11625 ) DEC, Dakota & ALR Team Post LINPACK Benchmarks................2.3K [ ] 11626 ) NSF to Finance Connection of Rural Universities to vBNS.......2.5K [ ] 11627 ) Oracle Posts Benchmark for Order Entry Application............2.4K [ ] 11628 ) Oracle8 & BEA Tuxedo Post TPC-C Benchmark Results.............2.4K [ ] 11629 ) SGI Sets Very Large Database Backup Record....................3.1K [ ] 11630 ) Alliance Semiconductor to use Oracle Applications.............2.6K [ ] 11631 ) Colt Telecommunications Chooses Ascend's GRF 400..............2.1K [ ] 11632 ) PPO Selects Sybase Server to Drive Managed Care System........2.6K [ ] 11633 ) SandCraft Chooses Frequency as Design Automation Partner......2.5K [ ] 11634 ) Lucent Purchases Enterprise-Wide Hummingbird License..........1.9K [ ] 11635 ) Unisys, OSI to Sell TCBS to Pacific Asian Mkt.................2.5K [ ] 11636 ) Plaintree, LG Cable Enter Korean Distribution Agreement.......3.1K [ ] 11637 ) Sabre's Network Outsourcing Deal Remains Successful...........2.3K [ ] 11638 ) VeriBest to Supply EDA Tools to Community College District....2.3K [ ] 11639 ) TSI TelSys Announces $2M in Additional Orders.................2.4K SHORT TAKES [ ] 11640 ) Product Watch: MS Intros SDK for Java Beta2....................22K Compaq Launches Workstations in Asia. Borland Previews Visual dBASE 7. [ ] 11641 ) Financial Update: DEC Net Income Surges in Q4................37.7K Sun's Q4 Net Income Up. Microsoft Revenues Rise in Q4. [ ] 11642 ) Corporate Liaisons: IBM, NEC Ink Tech Agreement................14K Siemens to License Sun Java. Informix, MS to Comarket Products. [ ] 11643 ) People and Positions: IBM Shuffles Top Mngmnt..................11K SCO Names McCrabb Sn VP, Mkt Planning. Finocchio Now Informix Pres, CEO. JOB BANK ===================================================================== [ ] 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Pallas, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MRJ, IBM Corp, HP, SDSC ABB Power Plant Laboratories......................................5K [ ] 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations.................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== [ ] 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 07.24.97)...............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) 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 month. -------------------- * -------------------- 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 1,774,437 articles and product announcements to HPC professionals worldwide. *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** [ ] 11570) SGI DEFENDS TURF, QUESTIONS HP'S NEW HI-END GRAPHICS LINE.....6.5K [ ] 11580) Cray Seeks Dumping Duties of 388% Against Fujitsu.............1.9K [ ] 11571) CAMBRIDGE'S ENIGMA PROJECT: AN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM SCHULTZ.....14K [ ] 11572) HITS & HISSES -- THE FUTURE OF ASIAN IT MARKETS: TWO VIEWS....9.4K [ ] 11644) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire.......1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~