The global publication of record for High Performance Computing / October 8, 2004: Vol. 13, No. 40

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Features:

HIGH-END CRUSADER REFUTES BLUE GENE/L DEFENDER: Commentary from the High-End Crusader
The High-End Crusader unearths (and criticizes) a whole worldview underlying an anonymous reader's response [this issue]. Among the issues covered are: 1) Linpack v. HPC Challenge benchmark suite, 2) utility/cost v. price/performance productivity metric, 3) likelihood that most demanding applications will localize eventually, and 4) should parallel programming be impossibly hard?
ON THE RELEVANCE OF IBM'S FASTEST COMPUTER CLAIM: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A reader responds anonymously to the High-End Crusader's remarks in last week's HPCwire [http://www.tgc.com/hpcwire/hpcwireWWW/04/1001/108466.html] that disputed IBM's claim of having the fastest computer in the world.
LLNL SCIENTIST REFUTES HIGH-END CRUSADER'S LINPACK CLAIMS: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Andrew J. Cleary, Software Engineer/Computational Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, responds to the High-End Crusader's criticism of the Linpack benchmark [http://www.tgc.com/hpcwire/hpcwireWWW/04/1001/108466.html].

2nd Annual Readers Choice Awards

HPCwire UNVEILS TWO NEW SECTIONS: HPCwire, as an added service to readers, is launching two NEW major sections -- a Top Systems In The World section and a Document Repository.
NSF AWARDS $130M TO TACKLE IT RESEARCH FOR NAT'L PRIORITIES: NSF has made awards supporting nearly 120 new Information Technology Research (ITR) projects dedicated to addressing the information technology priorities facing the country — advances in science and engineering, economic prosperity and a vibrant civil society, and national and homeland security.

Cluster Computing:

APPRO, STAAG MAKE MIGRATION ALTERNATIVE FOR OIL & GAS: Appro and Staag Imaging, a leading provider of high quality imaging, announces the compatibility of Staag Imaging's new proprietary Reverse- Time Migration algorithm with Appro's Hyperblade cluster technology.
BASE ONE GRANTED US PATENT FOR CLUSTER DATABASE TECHNOLOGY: Base One International Corporation, a leading supplier of software for developing cluster computing applications, announced that International Data Corporation (IDC) has issued a Research Bulletin about Base One.

High Performance Ads:

Vendor Spotlight:

SUN, TACC POWER UP TERASCALE VISUALIZATION SUPERCOMPUTER: The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin and Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that Maverick, a new UltraSPARC-based supercomputer, would provide compute power, storage resources and visualization to researchers, scientists and engineers across the country.
CRAY FOCUSES ON CAE, FOREST SERVICES WITH AVAILABLE XD1: Cray Inc. announced the general availability of the new Cray XD1 supercomputer, an Opteron/Linux-based system priced from under $100,000 to about $2 million (U.S. list) that handily outperforms similarly priced Linux clusters.
INTEL INTRODUCES SUITE OF TOOLS, EXPERTISE TO HELP: Intel Corporation announced new software tools to help developers design, analyze and optimize applications running on Intel-based platforms supporting Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T).
MORE ENERGY EXPLORATION FIRMS TURN TO SGI ALTIX: Silicon Graphics announced that British Gas Exploration and Production India Ltd., (BGEPIL) and Instituto Venezolano del Petroleo SA (INTEVEP) have invested in SGI Altix servers and supercomputers to maximize production from some of the world's largest deposits of oil and gas.
THE PORTLAND GROUP JOINS OpenMP ARCHITECTURE REVIEW BOARD: The Portland Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics, announced it has accepted an invitation to become a permanent member of the OpenMP Architecture Review Board (ARB).

Quote of the Week:

"Imagine that the plasma is the ocean, and the laser pulse is a ship moving through it. The electrons are surfers riding the wave created by the ship's wake."

Wim Leemans, Center for Beam Physics in
Berkeley Lab's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division

WILL FINANCIAL SERVICES DRIVE GRID ADOPTION?

WORLD'S FIRST CITY SUPERCOMPUTER TAKING SHAPE

News Briefs:

Hardware

Software

Networking

Storage

General

Short Takes:

Product Watch:: Performance Tech Intros Powerful Processor.
Transmeta Releases Details On 90nm Processor.
ClearSpeed Launches 50 GFLOPS Microprocessor.
Financial Update:: Cray Announces 3rd Qtr Investor Call.
SGI Announces Q1 Prelim Financial Results.
Verari Receives Investors' Choice Award.
Corporate Liaisons:: Cray, LSTC Exploit Scalability Of XD1.
SGI, Intel Speed Acccelerate Oil And Gas.
Sun, Siebel Systems Enhance Relationship.
People and Position:: Former ORNL Deputy Director Dies.
Daphne Koller Named MacArthur Fellow.

HPCwire Job Bank

This Week's Career Opportunities From:
ClearSpeed Cray Dartmouth D.E. Shaw Group	HPTi LLNL LSU ORNL	OSU PSC Tabor Comm.	TACC UMD UMN

Conferences & Events

HPCwire notes events and highlights a complete listing of industry-related conferences, exhibitions, meetings, etc.

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