H P C w i r e The Text-on-Demand E-zine for High Performance Computing *** August 15, 1997: Vol. 6, No. 32 *** This Week's Table of Contents Represents 389 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 -------------------- * -------------------- [ ] 70377) SONY INVITES YOU to visit its new Web Site at http://www.sony.com/Professional For all the latest information on SONY's Computer Tape Drives, Data Recorders and Tape Robotics ______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE _______________________________ | | | [ ] 11726) FEATURES: NORRIS SMITH'S VIEWS ON SIGGRAPH '97 | | [ ] 11733) SCIENCE NEWS: INTEL FACES CHALLENGES IN MFG PROCESS CHANGE | | [ ] 11737) COMMERCIAL NEWS: UNIX VENDORS JOIN FORCES VS NT | | [ ] 11742) NEWS BRIEFS: NCR NAMES SOLARIS AS 64-BIT REF PLATFORM | |____________________________________________________________________________| [ ] 70378) "SC97"--- High Performance Networking and Computing Talks to Feature John L. Hennessy, Ken Kennedy, David Farber, Pat Hanrahan FEATURES ===================================================================== [ ] 11726 ) SIGGRAPH: THROW OUT 'DA NOISE, BACK TO 'DA TEAPOTS............9.9K Commentary by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large A highly personal reaction to the auditory and cognitive dissonance of SIGGRAPH 97. Has the computer graphics community kissed the wrong frog, spawning special-effects monsters and boring Tinker Bellishness? Usefulness persists, around a mega-amplified thump-thump-THUMP Heart of Darkness. [ ] 11727 ) HIGH-END NETWORKING: AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM DEFANTI............9.4K Special to HPCwire by Alan Beck To learn more about leading-edge developments in networking technology, HPCwire interviewed one of its most prominent researchers about topics including the STAR TAP project, gigapops, and high-bandwidth apps. [ ] 11728 ) THE SIGGRAPH MOVIE: WEREWOLVES ARE OUT, TAPIRS ARE IN.........4.5K Review by Norris Parker Smith, editor at large Does the movie at SIG GRAPH 97 herald the exhaustion of the ILM/Disney traditions? A colorful, funny, testosterone-free myth from the jungles of the Amazon suggests a cheerful alternative. [ ] 11729 ) INTERGRAPH'S TDZ2000 SEEKS TO COMPETE WITH SGI'S OCTANE.......6.6K by Steve Fisher, associate editor Powered by the new 300MHz Pentium processors, Intergraph's TDZ2000 workstation has been billed as surpassing the graphics performance of SGI's Octane at half the cost. [ ] 11730 ) SENSE8'S PANGEA SUPPORTS MULTIPLATFORM 3D/VR DVPMNT..........10.1K by Steve Fisher, associate editor Sense8's Pangea, which supports Windows NT, SGI and Sun platforms is designed to allow developers to quickly and efficiently create multi- user 3D/VR simulation applications for intranet and Internet deployment. SCIENCE & ENGINEERING NEWS [ ] 11731 ) UCLA INSTALLS SGI'S REALITYMONSTER TO MAP HUMAN BRAIN.........4.4K UCLA has installed a visualization supercomputer to develop a four dimensional, probability-based atlas of the human brain. The atlas will aid physicians in the study of conditions such as epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. [ ] 11732 ) LUCENT IC MANUFACTURING TECH MAY ADVANCE SYSTEMS ON A CHIP....4.6K Lucent's Bell Labs has developed a new fabrication technology that will enable the integration of multiple system-level functions -- including customizable digital logic, precision analog, three different kinds of memory and two different processes -- on a single chip. [ ] 11733 ) INTEL FACES CHALLENGES IN MANUFACTURING PROCESS CHANGE........4.7K Intel Corp may be facing one of the toughest challenges to its dominance of the world's $27 billion computer chip industry, and it comes not from rivals on the rise, but from within the giant itself. [ ] 11734 ) IBM TUNES DEEP BLUE FOR THE COMMERCIAL SECTOR.................5.1K The technology responsible for the outcome of the now famous chess match between IBM's Deep Blue and Gary Kasparov is being targeted toward new and very different applications. [ ] 11735 ) STRATEGIC FOCUS COMPLETES EVALS OF APP DVPT TOOLS...............4K Strategic Focus, a software evaluation and market research firm, announced the completion of lab evaluations of three Client/Server application development tools -- VisualAge 3.0 (Smalltalk) from IBM, Visual Basic 5.0 from Microsoft, and Performer 1.1 from Sterling Software. COMMERCIAL NEWS [ ] 11736 ) TANDEM SURVEY POINTS TO RAPID ENTERPRISE ACCEPTANCE OF NT.....3.2K Tandem-Sponsored research in Europe foresees rapid adoption of Windows NT Server in enterprise. The study reveals 84% of IT analysts and consultants believe Windows NT Server will be the dominant corporate platform, and 64% see clustering as key. [ ] 11737 ) UNIX VENDORS JOIN FORCES TO COMBAT WINDOWS NT...................4K A collective of UNIX vendors has been formed to mount a promotional campaign for UNIX and to fight the onslaught of competition from Microsoft's Windows NT. Founding members include Digital, Hewlett- Packard, IBM, Sun, Siemens Nixdorf, The Open Group and SCO. [ ] 11738 ) INTEL FILES COUNTERCLAIM AGAINST DIGITAL........................4K Intel has returned Digital's fire and entered into what may be a lengthy legal battle over alleged patent violations in regard to the Pentium line of processors. [ ] 11739 ) CRAY J-90 SHIPMENTS REMAIN HEALTHY IN FOURTH QUARTER............4K Cray Research announced that customer demand for the CRAY J90 series of parallel vector supercomputers remains healthy and has recently shifted to larger systems with 16 to 32 processors. [ ] 11740 ) STUDY REPORTS 3D GRAPHICS CHIP MARKET BOOMING...................4K A recent study of the 3D hardware market prepared by market research firm Jon Peddie Associates, calls 3D chips the "hottest growth item in the semiconductor industry right now." [ ] 11741 ) RESEARCH REPORTS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR FRAME RELAY EQUIPMENT....4.8K According to strategic research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, U.S. Frame Relay Equipment Markets, both segments of the market, access and switching, should experience very healthy growth rates through the decade and into the next century. QUOTE OF THE WEEK ============================================================ [ ] 11727 ) "The major computer companies are NOT (yet) major networking companies, which is sort of strange in my thinking, given phrases like: "the network is the computer." -- Thomas DeFanti, director, Electronic Vizualization Lab, U of Illinois at Chicago __________________________INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS_________________________ [ ] 70379) VISUAL NUMERICS IMSL Distributed Network Fortran Library Provides High Performance Mathematics for Distributed Systems [ ] 70380) A joint Mass Storage Conference; 6th NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr Conference & the 15th IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage [ ] 70381) MAXSTRAT's Gen5 and NEC's SX-4 system together dramatically increase seismic data accuracy and reduce processing lead time. [ ] 70382) Qualcomm Announces Worldwide Availability Of Eudora Worldmail Server NEWS BRIEFS ================================================================== [ ] 11742 ) NCR Names Solaris on Intel as 64-Bit UNIX Ref Platform........1.6K [ ] 11743 ) New Cave VR Software Released.................................2.8K [ ] 11744 ) Tandem Announces NT System on MS Cluster Software.............1.7K [ ] 11745 ) SAP, EMC, HP & Informix Demo 1TB Enterprise Solution..........2.3K [ ] 11746 ) HP Prepares Users for 64-bit Migration........................3.2K [ ] 11747 ) CPU TECH Receives U.S. Patent for Parallel Processor..........1.3K [ ] 11748 ) Unisys Breaks TPC-C Barrier on Four & Six-way NT Servers......2.4K [ ] 11749 ) Oracle Takes Lead in Benchmark Battle with Teradata...........2.3K [ ] 11750 ) Informix, Amdahl Post TPC-D Benchmark.........................2.1K [ ] 11751 ) Oracle8 on Data General Servers Posts Benchmark...............1.9K [ ] 11752 ) GPC Group Notes New Projects, Releases GLperf Benchmark.......1.8K [ ] 11753 ) NCR to Ship CA Unicenter TNG Frmwrk with Worldmark Srvrs......2.1K [ ] 11754 ) Client Server Environments: Any Economies of Scale?...........2.1K [ ] 11755 ) TCI Goes Live with Seagate Holos 6 Financial OLAP...............2K [ ] 11756 ) Unisys & PADOR Develop Image-Based Tax Processing System......1.9K [ ] 11757 ) ECS Revamps Network for Motor Industry Research Association...1.9K [ ] 11758 ) Hitachi Initiates Network Object Plaza Operations.............1.1K [ ] 11759 ) ADC Metrica Wins Two European Contracts.......................2.8K [ ] 11760 ) Network Imaging Sells $2.25M in SW to Telecom Market..........2.4K [ ] 11761 ) Data Systems West Selects Object Design's ObjectStore.........2.6K [ ] 11762 ) Upstate NY County Selects Stratus/Tiburon System..............2.2K [ ] 11763 ) Scottish Life Awards Unisys $7.5M Contract....................2.1K [ ] 11764 ) SSA, IBM and Arthur Andersen Win Joint $16M Contract............2K [ ] 11765 ) Compaq Selects HP's Tachyon for New Storage Solutions.........2.1K [ ] 11766 ) Teradyne Receives 4TEL Order from Slovak Telecom Network......2.4K [ ] 11767 ) Newbridge Mainstreetxpress Switch Selected by BC Tel..........2.2K SHORT TAKES [ ] 11768 ) Product Watch: Cray Upgrades Programming Environments........34.2K SGI Cuts Octane Prices. Sun Intros XIL 1.3 for Solaris. [ ] 11769 ) Financial Update: Interphase Reports Q2 Revenue Growth........8.7K EDS Earnings Down in Q2. SGI Notes Rated BBB- by S&P. [ ] 11770 ) Corporate Liaisons: JetForm/Sun Accel Enterprise Java Sol....16.3K Oracle to Standardize Sony Euro Processes. EC OKs Compaq's Buyout of Tandem. [ ] 11771 ) People and Positions: SGI Appoints New VP, Global Channels....4.4K Novell Names Slitz Senior VP. Durdan Named VP, LSI Logic. JOB BANK ===================================================================== [ ] 667 ) Employment Opportunities From: Fermilab, Lawrence Berkeley, Tera, MIT, Raytheon E-Systems, Hewlett Packard, University of Michigan, IBM Corp, Pallas MRJ Technology Solutions..............................................5K [ ] 604 ) Job Bank Rates and Regulations.................................1.22K CONFERENCES ================================================================== [ ] 2888 ) Calendar of Upcoming HPC Events (Updated 08.14.97).............9.3K 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 | | [ ] 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 1,791,207 articles and product announcements to HPC professionals worldwide. *** LAST ISSUE'S MOST REQUESTED ITEMS *** [ ] 11695) ABERDEEN GROUP NOTES UNIX GROWTH AT HIGH END, NT AT LOW......4.1K [ ] 11693) CRAY HAS SHIPPED 8 SYSTEMS OF 512 OR MORE PROCESSORS.........5.6K [ ] 11690) U OF UTAH, SGI ESTABLISH VISUAL SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER..........4K [ ] 11696) MULTI-CPU SERVERS: THE FUTURE FOR IT PROFESSIONALS?..........3.4K [ ] 11772) TOP 20 MOST REQUESTED ARTICLES FROM LAST WEEK'S HPCwire......1.8K ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~