|
|
|
December 1997
|
|
|
 |
Applications
|
|
|
HPCN industry
|
|
|
Media and Visualisation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
France
|
|
|
Germany
|
|
|
Sweden
|
|
|
United Kingdom
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| HP scores in 1998 World Cup soccer series
|
|
Hewlett-Packard is one of the players at the World Cup Socker
tournament in 1998. The company is providing the World Cup Online
system with centralized server hardware that stores and feeds the data
for viewing by journalists and Internet browsers. World Cup Online was
introduced by the four World Cup IT partners, EDS, France Telecom, HP
and Sybase.
|
|
|
| VW chooses NEC SX-4 for vehicle crash testing
|
|
|
Volkswagon has chosen NEC computers for the third stage
expansion of its vehicle crash simulation programme. Four NEC
supercomputers are currently in use at VW's Wolfsburg site to aid the
company in the areas of structural mechanics, crash simulation and
computer fluid dynamics (CFD). One of the influencing factors was VW's
conviction that several computers, each dedicated to special tasks,
work more effectively than one central computer.
|
| Highest ever benchmark result for SAP's R/3
|
|
|
Hewlett Packard's HP 9000 V2200 enterprise high-end Unix
system server, with the HP-UX 11 operating environment, marked an
industry first by achieving more than 5,000 benchmark users. HP claims
it surpassed the competition by posting the highest-ever benchmark
result for SAP's leading R/3 application suite with 5,320 sales and
distribution benchmark users.
|
| OBI gets to know it's costumers with Tandem
application
|
|
|
The 400-store European OBI chain, a German-headquartered
home-improvements retailer, relies on a decision support application from Tandem
to put real-time customer buying information at
the fingertips of its franchise managers. When armed with a better
understanding of the customers, store managers expect to improve their
merchandise mix and in-stock positions, reduce handling costs, and
strengthen shopper loyalty. The goal is, of course, to enhance
profitability.
|
| Siemens demonstrates Windows platform on Primergy servers
and starts shipments of 64-bit Unix
|
|
|
Siemens Nixdorf has demonstrated the Windows NT
Enterprise Edition 4.0 and the SQL-Server 6.5 Enterprise Edition on its Primergy
server. Simulation of a server for 9000 users featured the
Microsoft SQL-Server software running on a Primergy Server (Model 760),
equipped with four Pentium Pro processors (200 MHz), each with a
one-Mbit Second Level Cache and four-Gbytes of main memory. The total hard
disk capacity of more than 600 Gbytes was handled via 15 disk channels.
|
|
|
| Ericsson buys Unix servers worth up to US $60 million
from Tandem
|
|
|
Ericsson intends to purchase up to US $60 million of
rack-mounted Tandem Unix system based S400RK servers over the next
three years. Ericsson will use Tandem's S400RK servers as adjunct
processors for a billing data collection application.
|
|
|
| Bay Networks alliance with ISPC
|
|
|
Bay Networks has entered into a strategic alliance with the
Internet Service Providers Consortium (ISPC), an organisation set up by
a number of independent Internet Service Providers to compete with the
large telecommunications carriers and service providers in the market.
The technology from Bay Networks enables the ISPC to provide its member
companies with dial and dedicated access services with local call
facilities throughout the UK and will help reduce the risks associated
with them becoming an ISP.
|
| CadCentre releases PEGS for Windows NT
|
|
|
Plant design software company CadCentre has completed the port
of its Project Engineering System (PEGS) to Microsoft's Windows NT
operating system. The new software is available now for general release
to customers. Windows NT users now can get an integrated plant design
application, from two-dimensional schematic design through to
three-dimensional plant modelling.
|
| Siemens chooses ViewPoint to complement Unix and Sinix
|
|
|
ViewPoint, the system performance analyser of Datametrics
Systems, has been chosen by Siemens Nixdorf to complement its Reliant
Unix and SINIX operating systems. ViewPoint prevents system degradation
through its ability to monitor and analyse over 30 different types of
systems and databases. In addition, ViewPoint's tools automate problem
diagnosis and reporting and suggest solutions to problems.
|
| Steelcase invests GBP 150,000 in
high performance network
|
|
|
Steelcase Strafor, a UK furniture manufacturing company, is betting GBP
150,000 on a network-centric IT infrastructure from IBM.
The infrastructure will be implemented by their business partner Memorex
Telex, to replace a Digital mid-range and terminal installation. This
will increase manageability and millennium compliance.
|
| UK insurance company signs GPB 1 million deal with
Sequent
|
|
|
Norwich Union, a UK insurance company, has selected Sequent
Computer Systems NUMA-Q 2000 data center server to host Norwich Union's
new data analysis systems. It will host applications designed to help
the company better understand and respond to customer needs,
ensuring that the information locked within company data is fully
exploited. The total deal, including Sequent professional services, is
worth 1 million pounds.
|
|
|
|
|
| Braille display lets blind people surf the Web
|
|
|
The C-LAB Research and Development Institute, a cooperative Computing
Laboratory operated by Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG and the University
of Paderborn, has developed an innovative workplace for the blind,offering
user-friendly access to the Web by means of a Braille display, a series of
complex adapting programs, Text to Speech facilities and even a special Braille
printer.
In collaboration with the newspapergroup WAZ and Bertelsmann Telemedia, C-LAB is
presenting the first internet software on line service for the blind called
"Cityweb Plus".
|
|
|
|
|
|
| US Army orders first Cray T3E-1200
|
|
|
The U.S. Army High-Performance Computing Research Center has ordered a
256-processor CRAY T3E-1200 supercomputer. This system, the
first CRAY T3E-1200 supercomputer to be ordered, will support the
center's research on critical Army technology issues in the fields of
3D simulation and modeling of computational fluid dynamics problems,
environmental sciences, materials science and computer science. The
purchase was managed by the center's system integrator,
Minneapolis-based Network Computing Services.
|
| Pilots train in 'real time' with SGI Host Computer
System
|
|
|
Flight simulation company Reflectone UK has purchased five
Origin200 systems to act as the host computer system for its
"real-time" C-130J Hercules flight simulator program. The
program was developed as part of an ongoing contract with Lockheed
Martin Aeronautical Systems.
|
| Y2K-ready versions of OpenVMS now available
|
|
|
A Year 2000 readiness kit is now available from Digital to
make OpenVMS Version 7.1 on both Alpha and VAX platforms fully prepared
for the Year 2000. There is already an application for Unix. In
addition, users with earlier versions of the OpenVMS operating system
will also be able to attain Year 2000 compliance without the need to
migrate to V7.1. Kits for other versions will be available by the first
half of next year.
|
| HP releases results of graphics and Ansys benchmarks
|
|
|
Hewlett-Packard has revealed results of several
application-performance benchmarks achieved by software vendors (ISVs).
These ISVs partner with HP in core MDA and EDA markets, as well as in
emerging application areas, such as virtual product development,
computational analysis and product data management. The benchmarks were
recorded during a series of graphics and application tests conducted by
HP in collaboration with Advanced Visual Systems (AVS), ANSYS
Corporation, Deneb Robotics, DIVISION, Engineering Animation (EAI),
ICEM, MoldFlow, Parametric Technology and Sense8.
|
|
|
| IBM sees a bright future for Unix
|
|
|
IBM held an Executive Briefing event on 28 November, at the Anugraha
Hotel, outside London, UK. The event unveiled their server strategy to some 250
Executives. The presentations concentrated on the RS/6000 which is used on
projects such as the Mars Probe Pathfinder to large SP
systems with 3 Teraflops peak performance at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories as
part of the US government's ASCI programme. The main strategic talk was given by
Antoine Granatino, the IBM General Manager for RS/6000 EMEA, (Europe, Middle
East and Africa).
|
| Computer Associates and SGI to deliver core client/server
products
|
|
|
Computer Associates International and Silicon Graphics have signed
an agreement under which CA will port and optimize its full line of
core client/server products, including Unicenter TNG, Jasmine and
OpenIngres, for
SGI servers.
|
| Encore completes sale of storage product business to
Sun
|
|
|
Encore has completed the sale of most of the assets of its Storage Product
business to Sun Microsystems for $185 million. The sale is expected to
significantly expand Sun's presence in the open storage market. According to
industry analists to reach $35 billion by the year 2000.
|
| SGI/Cray releases Data Migration Facility 2.6 for IRIX
|
|
|
Silicon Graphics/Cray Research has released its Data Migration
Facility (DMF) hierarchical storage management system for Silicon
Graphics and Cray IRIX systems. The Cray DMF 2.6 software provides file
storage by transparently migrating files to off-line storage, allowing
this off-line storage to supplement on-line disk capacity. DMF 2.6
scales in both capacity and performance to accommodate continuing
growth in data, as well as the need for high speed data transfer.
|
| HP ships four new high-availability configurations
|
|
|
Hewlett Packard has now available four new 99.95 percent uptime
high-availability foundation configurations for building and maintaining a
mission-critical environment. EMC's Symmetrix Enterprise
Storage systems also will be available in HP's HA foundation
configurations, making EMC the first partner in HP's Mission Critical
Server Suite program.
|
| Tera runs first program on MTA system
|
|
|
Supercomputer company Tera has run its first program on a
multiprocessor Multithreaded Architecture (MTA) system. Tera's MTA
system is scalable, which means that it provides increases in
application performance proportional to the number of processors with
no change in the programming model.
|
| NEC and HP introduce the TX7 scalable server
|
|
|
NEC and Hewlett-Packard Company have signed a strategic alliance in
the field of scientific-technical server development. NEC has also started
sales of a series of scientific-technical server products called the TX7
Series Scalable Server. The system has a PA-8000 and PA-8200 CPUs. It
is a scalar shared memory machine with up to 16 CPUs delivering a
performance capability of up to 12,8 Gflops.
|
|
|
| NEC develops new memory technology
|
|
|
NEC has developed Virtual Channel Memory (VCM), a memory core
technology that enhances existing memory architectures to give performance
increases. On personal computers, workstations and servers,
VCM is expected to double graphics performance and raise system
performance by as much as 20%. VCM requires no design changes in memory
input/output architectures, chip packaging or board design.
|
| IRIS Explorer Centre established at University of Leeds
|
|
|
An IRIS Explorer Centre of Excellence providing a focus for
research and development linked to the IRIS Explorer data visualization
and application builder software has just been established at the
University of Leeds in the UK. The aim of the Centre is to act as a
focus for research and development linked to IRIS Explorer, to provide
innovative extensions to the software. Another goal is to support users through
the provision of online training materials and a repository of
user-contributed modules available for general use.
|
|
|
|
|
| Essential releases JackRabbit
|
|
|
Essential, a provider of Gigabit networking applications,
has released JackRabbit, a Gigabit Ethernet
NIC for SGI's Octane and Origin systems. This Gigabit Ethernet NIC
includes Essential's proprietary ASIC design known as Roadrunner.
|
|
|
|
|
| Boeing Awards Concurrent $532K Avionics Contract
|
|
|
Boeing has selected a Night Hawk solution for a complex avionics project.
The total contract is for $532,040. Boeing is contracted by the U.S. Air Force
to upgrade the avionics on the Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM)
- the only air-launched, conventionally armed, long-range standoff missile in
the Air Force inventory today. Boeing selected Concurrent's Night Hawk solution
because it combined a high-performance real-time computer system with a
comprehensive development and run-time Unix environment. This total, integrated
solution is used to develop the CALCM's upgraded avionics.
|
