J.Wexler@edinburgh.ac.uk (08/20/90)
EDINBURGH PARALLEL COMPUTING CENTRE FIRST ANNUAL SEMINAR
Monday 24th September 1990
James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh
Progress at one of Europe's major centres of concurrent computing.
General Information
The Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, inaugurated in January 1990, is an
interdisciplinary focus for parallel computing projects involving research
groups within the University of Edinburgh, with industrial partners and academic
users throughout Europe. It incorporates research, service and commercial
divisions, as well as participants from University departments, and affiliates
from industry. Its function is to enable the exploitation of parallelism
in all kinds of problem-solving by creating and making accessible expertise,
tools and facilities. It supports applications work through research into the
fundamentals of parallelism, development of support tools, parallel
supercomputing services, consultancy, training and user support, and industrial
liaison.
The Centre's principal computing resources include a 400-transputer Meiko
Computing Surface, providing nationally networked multi-user access, a
64-processor Parsytec system, and a 4096-processsor AMT Distributed Array
Processor. It is also responsible for service on a second DAP and on a new
Computing Surface of 64 i860 nodes, targeted on "Grand Challenge" problems of
science and engineering. The Centre also coordinates activities with other
parallel hardware in participating departments, such as DEC Fireflies, a DEC VAX
6340 symmetrical multiprocessor, and a Sequent Symmetry.
The Centre is supported by industry (including a major contribution from Meiko
Limited), the University of Edinburgh, Lothian Regional Council, and by the
Department of Trade and Industry, with major recurrent funding from the Science
and Engineering Research Council and from the Computer Board.
The Centre's first annual seminar provides an overview of its activities, the
hardware configurations and the software environment, and presents a selection
of research projects in science, engineering and artificial intelligence from
the expanding community of some 200 active users. It also offers demonstrations
of the local computing resources, and of software developed on them. The
Parallel Computing Centre subsumes the Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer
Project, and the seminar continues the series begun by the Project's Annual
Seminars. It is open to anyone with interests in the development and application
of parallel computing.
The seminar begins with the formal opening of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing
Centre by Sir William Mitchell, Chairman of the Science and Engineering Research
Council. The keynote speech will be given by Bruce Boghosian of Thinking
Machines Corporation.
This seminar is sponsored by:
DTI/SERC Transputer Initiative
and co-sponsored by:
The British Computer Society (Parallel Processing Specialist Group)
The Institute of Physics (Computational Physics Group)
The Scottish Development Agency
Contact for more information:
CEP Consultants Ltd
26-28 Albany Street
Edinburgh EH1 3QH
Great Britain
phone: +44 31 557 2478 / 031 557 2478
fax: +44 31 557 5749 / 031 557 5749
Programme
08.30 Registration and coffee
09.30 Opening of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre:
Prof. E W J Mitchell, FRS, Chairman of SERC
Sir David Smith, FRS, Principal, University of Edinburgh
09.40 Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre status:
Overview: D.J. Wallace
Service and utilisation: M.W. Brown
Industrial affiliation: D.B. Mercer
10.30 Coffee
11.00 Keynote speaker - Bruce Boghosian (Thinking Machines Corporation)
11.50 S F Reddaway (Active Memory Technology): Parallel data transforms
12.10 Computing surface software environments
12.30 Lunch and demonstrations
13.50 to 17.00, in three parallel streams:
Applications - talks will include
Molecular graphics
Theorem-proving using speculative parallelism
Simulating a shared-memory multiprocessor architecture
QCD on i860s; a UK Grand Challenge
Neural nets for oil-well faces determination
Database searching on the DAP
Mapping commercial CFD codes onto Transputer systems
Reports on 1990 summer student projects
Tools and methods - talks will include
Linda/Prolog
Simulation tools for parallel computers
Performance programming for i860s
Cellular automata on Transputers: the CAPE environment
Constructive Solid Geometry
Genetic algorithms for process planning
3-d surface tracking
The heteroarchitecture project: SIMD and MIMD together
Demonstrations
Presentations will be twenty-minute talks. There will be eight in each stream,
with a break for tea and coffee from 15.10 to 15.40.
17.00 Close
Venue
The seminar will be held in the James Clerk Maxwell Building at the King's
Buildings, the University's "science campus" in South Edinburgh. This is some
10 miles from Edinburgh Airport, and two and a half miles South of the city
centre.
Fees
The seminar fee is #55. This includes admission, lunch, refreshments, and a
Directory describing system, utilities and application developments within the
EPCC and its user community. There is no charge for industrial affiliates or
registered academic users of the Centre's services.
Fees must be paid in Sterling, by cheque or banker's draft or credit card
(Access/Eurocard/Mastercard/Visa can be accepted).
Fees are NOT refundable except in the event of cancellation of the Seminar.
Registration
Please make your application in advance on the Registration Form. Payment of the
seminar fee should accompany your application.
Please note that places are strictly limited to a maximum of 200, and will be
allocated in order of receipt of PAYMENT. Early booking is advisable.
Delegates should arrive between 08.30 and 09.30 on Monday 24th September for
completion of registration at the James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's
Buildings, Mayfield Road.
Arrival by Air/Train/Road
Delegates arriving by air on early morning flights on 24th September are advised
to take a taxi from Edinburgh Airport to the James Clerk Maxwell Building at the
above address (approximately 10 miles). A taxi rank is also available within
Waverley Station for travellers arriving by overnight sleeper. Parking near the
James Clerk Maxwell Building is available on the King's Buildings site only for
cars displaying permits: free one-day permits may be requested on the
Registration Form. A bus will be provided from the Pollock Halls on the morning
of the 24th, and taxis will be provided to Edinburgh (Waverley) Station and
Edinburgh Airport at 17.10.
Accommodation
Delegates can book accommodation for any nights from 20th to 24th September.
This will be provided in the Pollock Halls, about one mile North of the King's
Buildings and a mile South of the city centre. We are providing accommodation
for several days in advance of the meeting for the convenience of those who are
also attending the 13th Technical Meeting of the Occam User Group, which
takes place in York shortly
before the Seminar, on Tuesday-Thursday 18/20th September.
Industrial Affiliation
An Industrial Affiliation Scheme exists to foster collaboration with industry
and to promote awareness and exploitation of concurrent computing. The annual
seminar forms part of a 2-day meeting organised for Industrial Affiliates.
Members and Partners should complete and return the separate form which is being
sent to them.
Secretariat
For further information, or additional copies of the programme, please contact
Seminar Secretariat
CEP Consultants Ltd
26-28 Albany Street
Edinburgh EH1 3QH
(Telephone 031-557 2478)
________________________________________________________________________________
EDINBURGH PARALLEL COMPUTING CENTRE FIRST ANNUAL SEMINAR
Monday 24th September 1990
James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh
REGISTRATION FORM
Please complete and return, with payment of fees, to:
EPCC Seminar Secretariat, CEP Consultants Ltd,
26-28 Albany Street, Edinburgh EH1 3QH
Early booking is advisable, as the number of places is limited.
Name .................................................
Organisation/company ..................................
Address .................................................
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Telephone .........................................
Registration fee #55 ........
OR delegate of an affiliated organisation (tick if applicable) ........
OR registered user of EPCC service (give user number) ........
Accommodation - please tick each item required:
Bed and breakfast Dinner,
bed and breakfast
#25.30 #19.55
Thursday 20th September
Friday 21st
Saturday 22nd
Sunday 23rd
Monday 24th
(All prices are inclusive of VAT)
Please enter amount here ............................
Cheques should be made payable to EPCC Seminar
(VAT registration number 271 7967 20)
ACCESS/EUROCARD/MASTERCARD/VISA accepted
Please indicate which you wish to use ..............
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Expiry date .........................................
Address to which card account is sent
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Signed .................................................
Date .................................................
Parking permit required (please tick)........