Customer Reviews (1)

ever onward
In the US. the NRC is probably the best qualified to assess where supercomputing is going. The book offers a vendor neutral survey. One that is also largely country neutral. The latest status of various hardware efforts is described. For vector computing, massive clustering, and other approaches.

The latter also includes the ongoing competition between building a supercomputer out of common off the shelf components (COTS), or viadesigning dedicated hardware. You might wonder at the continued viability of the latter, as design limits keep getting pushed back. Surely a point of diminishing returns will be reached? ... Read more

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Focuses on the design and implementation of two classes of non-von Neumann computer architecture: those designed for functional and logical language computing. ... Read more

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The development of the supercomputer has given scientists an awesome new capability: the power to virtually re-create the physical world on the computer screen, with a stunning degree of precision and sophistication. Everything from weather systems to biochemical interactions to car crashes to air pollution to high speed subatomic particle collisions can now be simulated, manipulated, and observed at the scientist's will. The fascinating, strikingly illustrated Supercomputing and the Transformation often' provides a state of the art look at the capabilities and scientific contributions of the most powerful computers. Written bv noted science author William Kaufmann and supercomputing expert Larry Smarr, the book examines the hardware, software, and techniques of supercomputing, showing how these powerful machines 'solve' the mathematical laws that govern natural phenomena and convert the numbers into comprehensive visual images. The book then explores the impact of this extraordinary technologv on a wide range of endeavors from medicine to environmental protection, from particle physics to astronomy, from automobile'design to meteorologv. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A wonderful old book, still relevant
This is a great book to learn about the ways in which various areas of science and engineering have learned to use increased computing power.It is well-written by knowledgeable people, and is beautifully illustrated.Of course, the computers mentioned in the book are long obsolete [we have many of them at the Computer History Museum], but that does not matter,as the general methods remain. Of course, today, a desktop PC or server has more computepower than the multi-$M machines used when the book was written.

It would be nice if there were a newer version of this, are a similar book written more recently, but I don't know of anysuch (and I've asked around).So, this book is inexpensive, and very well worth owning.

Big and fast iron
Easy to read overview of the field of supercomputing. Describes technologies (eg, relays to highly integrated circuits) and architectures (eg, scalar to vector, multiprocessor and massively parallel) used to effect supercomputing. Describes applications of supercomputing in physics, in constructing evolutionary trees from sequencing data, in molecular biology, engineering, planetary sciences, weather forecasting, and cosmology. ... Read more

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In this book you'll discover what constitutes a 'supercomputer', how the supercomputers of today function, how you can make your own computer into a super machine - through networking - and what tomorrow holds in store for computer usage in terms of hardware, software and everyday applications. ... Read more

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Improvements and what to use them for
A recent grouping of 15 articles published in Scientific American, from 1995-2001. Though computing is still chugging along at Moore's Law's rate, these articles are still quite germane. Written at a level for a broad, educated audience, they give you a good understanding of the various key points in supercomputing.

Issues include how to cluster computers into a functional unit, that can run these all efficiently (load balance). Or, how to make novel arrangements of computers into a supercomputer. Plus, of course, the steady progress of vector supercomputers, which has been the traditional route since Cray pioneered these in the 1970s.

The articles are not just about how to make better supercomputers. They also discuss why you'd want to do so. The problems you can now tackle with better hardware. Meteorology being the classic (unclassified) application. ... Read more

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MIMD supercomputers, software, and issuesParallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is devoted to supercomputing on a wide variety of Multiple-Instruction-Multiple-Data (MIMD)-class parallel machines. The book describes architectural concepts, commercial and research hardware implementations, major programming concepts, algorithmic methods, representative applications, and benefits and drawbacks. Commercial machines described include Connection Machine 5, NCUBE, Butterfly, Meiko, Intel iPSC, iPSC/2 and iWarp, DSP3, Multimax, Sequent, and Teradata. Research machines covered include the J-Machine, PAX, Concert, and ASP. Operating systems, languages, translating sequential programs to parallel, and semiautomatic parallelizing are aspects of MIMD software addressed in Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures. MIMD issues such as scalability, partitioning, processor utilization, and heterogenous networks are discussed as well.Packed with important information and richly illustrated with diagrams and tables, Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is an essential reference for computer professionals, program managers, applications system designers, scientists, engineers, and students in the computer sciences. ... Read more

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UNDERSTANDING PARALLEL SUPERCOMPUTING is an exhaustive, applications-oriented survey of the world's largest and fastest computers. Beginning with the evolution of parallel supercomputing technology in recent history, author R. Michael Hord goes on to illustrate architectural concepts and implementations at the very center of today's cutting-edge technology. Topics featured include: technology benefits and drawbacks, software tools and programming languages, major programming concepts, sample parallel programs, algorithmic methods, both SIMD and MIMD architectures. This carefully written text will be of interest to engineers, scientists, and program managers involved in geologic exploration, aircraft design, image processing, weather modeling, operations, research, chemical synthesis, and medical applications. It will also be of practical use to computer specialists. ... Read more

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Parallel computer systems are being used to forecast the weather, make maps, simulate chemical reactions, control air traffic, guide missiles, provide robots with vision, and manage ballistic missile defense. A major problem in designing large-scale parallel systems is the construction of an interconnection network to provide interprocessor communications. This book presents the theoretical basis and a number of case studies that demonstrate how this work is done. This revision includes the most recent research in the field. ... Read more

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The efficient use of supercomputers often requires the design of new numerical algorithms, or the re-design of existing algorithms and data organization, in order to realize the potential of the new architectures. This development, in combination with the installation of two new supercomputers in The Netherlands (a Cray-1 and a CDC Cyber 205) gave the impetus to the editors of this book to start a Colloquium on Numerical Aspects of Vector and Parallel Processors. This successful event attracted participants from science, industry and government, not only from The Netherlands but also from the UK, Belgium, and Germany. Twenty-three of the papers presented at the colloquium appear in this book. In the majority of the papers one of the following vector and/or parallel computers plays a role: CDC Cyber 205, Cray-1, Cray X/MP, VP-200, DPP84. ... Read more

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Ever since the invention of the computer, users have demanded more and more computational power to tackle increasingly complex problems. A common means of increasing the amount of computational power available for solving a problem is to use parallel computing. Unfortunately, however, creating efficient parallel programs is notoriously difficult. In addition to all of the well-known problems that are associated with constructing a good serial algorithm, there are a number of problems specifically associated with constructing a good parallel algorithm. These mainly revolve around ensuring that all processors are kept busy and that they have timely access to the data that they require. Unfortunately, however, controlling a number of processors operating in parallel can be exponentially more complicated than controlling one processor. Furthermore, unlike data placement in serial programs, where sophisticated compilation techniques that optimise cache behaviour and memory interleaving are common, optimising data placement throughout the vastly more complex memory hierarchy present in parallel computers is often left to the parallel application programmer.All of these problems are compounded by the large number of parallel computing architectures that exist, because they often exhibit vastly different performance characteristics, which makes writing well-optimised, portable code especially difficult. The primary weapon against these problems in a parallel programmer's or parallel computer architect's arsenal is - or at least should be - the art of performance prediction. This book provides a historical exposition of over four decades of research into techniques for modelling the performance of computer programs running on parallel computers. ... Read more

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Supercomputing is a strategic tool for the future. These proceedings examine the most recent advances in effective applications of supercomputing and offer visions of the future. Special focus is given to the spread of applications in both the public and commercial sectors where supercomputing is being increasingly embraced as the ultimate competitive tool in the global arena. ... Read more

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Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems involving quantum mechanical physics, weather forecasting, climate research (including research into global warming), molecular modelling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), physical simulations (such as simulation of aeroplanes in wind tunnels, simulation of the detonation of nuclear weapons, and research into nuclear fusion), cryptanalysis, and the like. Major universities, military agencies and scientific research laboratories are heavy users. This book presents the latest research in the field from around the world. ... Read more

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Increases in computer power and technology have rapidly advanced the applications of numerical modeling in environmental and earth sciences.The progress of numerical modeling in atmospheric, oceanic, and geophysical sciences was the topic of an international conference held by the National Autonomous University of Mexico.The review articles and research papers in this volume constitute a wide-ranging and up-to-date account of modeling environmental and earth processes through a variety of numerical simulations. Sections are devoted to such topics as General Circulation Models and global change, methods of geophysical data assimilation, and mathematical and computational methods with geophysical applications.This book forms an excellent introduction and overview for graduate students as well as a critical update for researchers. ... Read more

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Supercomputing is an important science and technology that enables the scientist or the engineer to simulate numerically very complex physical phenomena related to large-scale scientific, industrial and military applications. It has made considerable progress since the first NATO Workshop on High-Speed Computation in 1983 (Vol. 7 of the same series). This book is a collection of papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Trondheim, Norway, in June 1989. It presents key research issues related to: - hardware systems, architecture and performance; - compilers and programming tools; - user environments and visualization; - algorithms and applications. Contributions include critical evaluations of the state-of-the-art and many original research results. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Mississippi Business Journal, published by Venture Publications on October 18, 2004. The length of the article is 1774 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Super power: state a tech leader: Mississippi ranks first in Southeast, seventh in nation for supercomputing.
Author: Becky Gillette
Publication: Mississippi Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 18, 2004
Publisher: Venture Publications
Volume: 26Issue: 42Page: 1(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Recognizing the need for a comprehensive overview of new results, this book looks at the problems of creating fast numerical and nonnumerical algorithms. It also contains analyses of their properties and possibilities of their efficient implementation on specialized parallel computers. Instead of treating these problems separately, the book deals with them in their complexity, taking into account their mutual relationships. Attention is paid to the following topics: - methods of creating fast parallel algorithms - parallel algorithms for associative computers - systolic algorithms and their implementation on specialized processors - algorithms for pipeline and matrix processors and for multiprocessors - solution of a system of linear equations on specialized computers - lower time bounds for SIMD-type algorithms. ... Read more

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The development of supercomputers has had considerable impact in computational mechanics where computer techniques are used to solve complex equations representing engineering problems. Parallel processing using supercomputers is especially useful in solving problems in computational fluid dynamics where much processing power is necessary. At present developments in hardware lead research in methods and algorithms, and this book deals with the application of parallel processing with supercomputers and examines the problems of computational mechanics in a logical way. ... Read more