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| 18 January 1999 | EuroFlash
no. 343
USFlash no. 463 |
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Advertisement
Primeur
is the premier news service on HPCN and supercomputing in Europe. Primeur Weekly
delivers the news each week in your e-mail box. Check out the Primeur web site
for the Calendar, the Analysis section with background on the TOP500, the Monthly en Live! special issues, information on HPCN centres and industry.
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 Medical applications of HPCN
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The leads of the news articles: |
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Migration and Optimisation tools for HPC |
| On February 9 1999, a workshop on SEP-Tools
is held in London. SEP-Tools ports European tools to HPC platforms of Japanese hardware vendors. Tools include Vampir, a parallel performance analysis tool by Pallas and FZ Jülich; Dimenas, a performance prediction toolfrom CEPBA and Pallas
and CAPtools, a Fortran analysis and
parallelisation package developed by the University of Greenwich. For more information fax +44 1483 442280.
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Cegetel to introduce wireless Internet acces |
| Cegetel, a private telecommunications company in France, starts integrating its wireless phone and Internet services to provide users email, Internet and voice services through one bill, one phone number/email address, device choice (their cell phone or any Web browser), and one infrastructure on the back end.
This new 'In-Edit' service is based on the Sun platform systems, including large
Enterprise systems.
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British Aerospace 'Battle-Ready' in selecting Mercury |
| British Aerospace selected Mercury as a primary supplier of digital signal processing system (DSP) applications. The order is an example of the increasing use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology in the defence market. Mercury's Battle-Ready COTS products are designed to meet the more exacting requirements of the military market. It is expected that this agreement could lead to orders worth several million pounds over the next five years.
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PPP selects Unisys to handle newspaper production |
| Portsmouth Publishing and Printing (PPP), one of UK's regional newspaper groups signed an agreement with the Unisys Publishing Solutions suite of editorial software applications and services. The Hermes, WireCenter and DocCenter have been selected by PPP to handle their newspaper production, information management and archiving requirements.
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Baan receives $75 million In equity Investment from Fletcher |
| Baan received a $75 million equity investment from Fletcher International. The agreement also provides for an additional potential investment of up to $150 million, for a possible total of $225 million. The investment is a step in trying to strengthen Baan, which recently announced a significant loss.
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IBM's hard disc drive awarded by 17 awards |
| IBM's hard disk drive division was awarded with 17 magazine awards across Europe in 1998.
The most recent award was granted by the UK publication PC Magazine in their annual Technical Innovation Awards for Best System Design 1998 - Technology, for the GMR (Giant Magneto- Resistive Heads) technology. Other awards have been received from UK, French, Danish, German and Italian IT publications, for the Deskstar and Ultrastar products.
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IBM, Bellcore and Trillium participate in Sun's JAIN |
| IBM, Bellcore and Trillium Digital Systems have joined Java In Advanced Intelligent Networks
(JAIN) to develop open standards and specifications for Intelligent Network (IN) applications and services. JAIN is a telecom industry framework, based on Sun's JavaBeans component architecture, designed to blend Internet and IN technologies in telecom services.
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SPSS ships Data Entry network server |
| SPSS introduced the Data Entry Network Server. The new software enables multiple people in an organization to simultaneously enter data directly to the same central file already structured for cleaning and analysis. SPSS Data Entry Network Server is now shipping worldwide.
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ViewDreamworks used SGI systems for 'Prince of Egypt' |
| DreamWorks' new feature about the story of Moses 'The Prince of Egypt' was created with the help of SGI workstations and servers. With over half a million drawings, 885 hand-painted backgrounds and roughly 600 effects shots, DreamWorks used O2 desktop workstations for 2D functions such as sketching, scanning and coloring.
Eighty-five dual-processor Silicon Graphics Origin200 systems and four Origin2000systems were used for rendering and file serving.
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NEC to launch 'one-trillionth of a second' pico-laser |
| NEC Corporation has developed a pico-second (one-trillionth of a second) optical communications semiconductor laser. The laser can emit a wavelength controlled ultra-short light pulse at a frequency of 10 GHertz (SDH frequency) for optical communications. When used in combination with Wavelength Division Multiplexing ultra-high capacity, transfer rates of multi-Tbits per second can be obtained.
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SGI launches visual workstations based on Intel and Windows NT |
| Silicon Graphics introduced the 320 and 540, the first products in its new family of visual workstations based on Intel processors and the Windows NT operating system. This step marks Silicon Graphics' entry into the Windows NT workstation market. The 320 will ship in February and the 540 in the second quarter of 1999 at an entry price of $5,995.
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Tera proposed patents for 15 MTA applications |
| Tera Computer Company has recently submitted 15 applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The proposed patents cover various software and hardware aspects of Tera's Multithreaded Architecture (MTA), which is the basis of its MTA supercomputer system.
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Mercury started shipping PCI Race VantageRT systems |
| Mercury Computer Systems has begun volume production of its RACE Series VantageRT systems based on Motorola's PowerPC 750 microprocessor. VantageRT is expected to open new sectors within Mercury's defense and medical markets, and also to support the company's entry into new market segments. The VantageRT is Mercury's first PowerPC-based RACEway multiprocessing component for use in Windows NT or Solaris-based PCI systems.
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Medical applications of HPCN |
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Parallel computed virtual heart models form upgrade for existing angiographic equipment |
| Detailed 3D reconstruction of a patient's heart geometry allows the physician to accurately diagnose any serious failure within the cardiac structure.
At present, the production of a complete 3D data set takes the cardiologist about 1 to 2 hours of manual measurement.
The objective of the Esprit funded 3D HeartView project is to implement an advanced method of 3D image processing based on 2D angiography sequences with minimal user intervention.
In order to speed up the procedure for routine clinical use, the system is ported on a high performance parallel hardware platform to form a powerful add-on for the digital angiographer.
The project partners are eager to prove to the major suppliers of angiography devices that the 3D HeartView accelerator offers valuable improvement for medical problems and as such is bound to open new markets.
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Java imaging solutions support advanced medical visualization in PACS stations |
| Medical imaging and radiology professionals are continuously in search of advanced solutions to enhance the quality of the various image processing functions in their equipment.
In this regard, Java has become the new creed.
Over the past year, Sun Microsystems has worked very hard to optimize its Java technology in order to provide the PACS (Picture Archival Computer System) review stations with new medical visualization features.
The newly developed Java tools support grey scale visuals, as well as fast look-up and retrieval of both 8- and 12-bit images.
In addition, the company has made available an early access version of the Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) Application Programming Interface (API) object library.
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Silicon Graphics offers powerful hardware systems' support for PACS solutions |
| Several industrial companies which are specialized in Picture Archival Computer Systems (PACS) and advanced medical imaging solutions benefit from the computational power, delivered by Silicon Graphics' visual computing and high-performance systems.
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Parsemed algorithms reconstruct ultrasound scans to 3D images in no time |
| In the Western countries as well as in Japan, the acquisition of 2D images by means of sonography has become a very popular imaging modality for clinical diagnosis.
Yet, specialists in the medical fields of gynaecology, obstetrics, cardiology and radiology have an urgent need for more accurate visualization tools, provided by 3D systems.
Unfortunately, current 3D applications require too much computational effort to be performed in real time.
The use of open and cost effective high performance computing and networking (HPCN) techniques constitute a realistic solution to this problem.
ProHPC, the French division within the Technology Transfer Nodes (TTN), has set up the Parsemed-3D project to demonstrate the value of a real time 3D reconstruction system for optimized medical diagnosis.
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First dynamic 3D model of human knee joint enables realistic simulation in automotive and implant industries |
| In only one year, from July 1997 to July 1998, three partners in the Esprit funded KneesUp project have produced an accurate 3D model of the human knee, including soft tissues, to demonstrate the biomechanical environment of the knee joint.
The team applied finite element modelling and high performance computing and networking (HPCN) technology to build the KneesUp simulation model for implant testing and injury prediction in car crash scenarios.
For this purpose, a series of four concrete simulation cases have been developed and studied.
These demonstrations include a normal gait cycle and a heel strike impact as showcases for the orthopaedic and implant industry, and a lateral pedestrian and toe panel intrusion foot impact as illustrative examples for the automotive industry.
In addition, the partners used the model to observe the behaviour of a first prototype for a meniscal implant.
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NekTar codes to lead corkscrewing blood flow into proper channels |
| There was a time when blood flow in the human body could only be represented in "still" images, which were acquired through magnetic resonance (MRI).
At the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) supported by the University of Illinois, Dr. George Karniadakis and Dr. Spencer Sherwin recently have developed and adapted the so-called NekTar computer codes to accurately model various kinds of fluid flows.
The true-to-life simulation of the human blood flow allows the researchers to find adequate surgical treatment for atherosclerosis, which occurs as a fatty blockage in the vessels and causes the arteries to slowly obstruct until the heart finally stops beating.
A major change in the shape of arterial grafts might encourage the blood flow to swirl down the tortuous veins.
The corkscrewing turbulence prevents the arteries from silting up with plaque.
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Alpha system architecture will help to reveal the omega of the human genome |
| Celera Genomics recently signed a strategic alliance agreement with Compaq Computer for the delivery of integrated hardware, software, networking and services solutions.
Celera, a Rockville based unit of the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, is working hard on the completion of the full sequencing of the human genome.
With the support of Compaq, the new and privileged IT partner, the company hopes to reach its ambitious goal within the following three years.
The unveiling of the human genome will constitute the final source of basic genomic and medical information to further the development of revolutionary therapeutic as well as diagnostic methods.
For this purpose, Compaq will implement and maintain an entire IT infrastructure, based on the powerful Alpha architecture.
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Siemens Medical to select Silicon Graphics O2 workstation for advanced 3D angiography visualization |
| New high resolution viewing methods are being developed for the medical sector to help the physician make a solid diagnosis and to support a preponderated choice between micro-invasive treatment or interventional surgery for a specific patient.
One of the largest manufacturers of diagnostic imaging solutions is Siemens Medical Systems, Inc.
This company decided to choose the O2 workstation, developed by Silicon Graphics, to serve as the visualization platform for an innovative 3D X-ray angiography application.
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| Primeur Weekly is published per e-mail. Check out the subscription information for more details how to subscribe. You can find the back issues on the Primeur web site. The EuroFlash! and USflash! are published together with ESIS - European Supercomputing Information Service. © 1999, Genias Benelux
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