J.Wexler@edinburgh.ac.uk (06/23/89)
EDINBURGH CONCURRENT SUPERCOMPUTER SECOND ANNUAL SEMINAR
Wednesday 27th September 1989
James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh
General Information
The Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project is based on a very large Meiko
Computing Surface funded primarily by the Computer Board for the Universities
and Research Councils, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Science and
Engineering Research Council, and Industry. It provides multi-user access to an
electronically configurable compute resource of some 400 T800 Transputers and
1.7Gbytes of memory, with five display systems, video input and distributed
filestore. This offers a national facility for academic and research
applications, and also supports an industrial affiliation scheme with currently
some 18 members. The commissioning and development of the facility is a
collaborative project between Meiko Limited and the University of Edinburgh.
There are active user projects in many different disciplines. The project's own
staff, as well as managing the facility, provide courses, documentation and user
support, and are engaged in software development and acquisition and in-house
research.
The Project's second annual seminar provides an overview of the project, 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 more than 200 users. It also offers demonstrations
of the Meiko system and the AMT DAP, and software developed on them.
The seminar is open to anyone with interests in the development and application
of parallel computing.
This seminar is sponsored by:
The Scottish Development Agency
DTI/SERC Transputer Initiative
and co-sponsored by:
The British Computer Society (Parallel Processing Specialist Group)
The Institute of Physics (Computational Physics Group)
Throughout this notice, please read "#" as "pounds sterling".
Programme
The first session begins at 09.30 with a status report on the project. The
second morning session consists of a presentation by Meiko and a report on our
summer scholarship programme. The afternoon sessions contain 12 brief reports
of projects selected from the broad spectrum of activities in the large ECS user
community. In parallel with the afternoon sessions, demonstrations will be
provided on the ECS and AMT DAP systems in the James Clerk Maxwell Building.
Lunch will be provided, and refreshments will be available throughout the
meeting.
08.30 Registration, coffee and demonstrations
09.30 Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project status:
Introduction: D.J. Wallace
Service and utilisation: M.W. Brown
Software environment: M. Davoren
Project Manager's report: D.B. Mercer
10.45 Coffee
11.15 Meiko perspectives: N. Burnett and D. Roweth
Summer scholarships report: G.V. Wilson
12.15 Lunch and demonstrations
14.00 ECS Project reports: Session Chairman, R.N. Ibbett
Parallelising tools: D. Prior
Topology-independent harnesses: L.J. Clarke
D3 - Parallel graphics: M.G. Norman
Machine-independent image processing language -
APPLY: H. Wang (Leeds University)
Linda - shared memory emulation: R. Trehan
Communications performance in occam programs:
Q. Luo
15.30 Tea
16.00 ECS Project reports (continued)
A distributed black-board system for vision
applications: M. Brown
Neural net work: D.J. Wallace
Chemical process simulation: J. Ponton
Oil reservoir modelling: M. Baker
Variational wave functions for high temperature
superconductors: W. Yeung (Queen Mary College)
Lattice field theory: K.C Bowler
17.30 Close
Venue
The seminar will be held in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, where the
Supercomputer is housed, 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 unchanged from 1988 at #55.20, with a reduced rate of #34.50
for early booking (inclusive of VAT). This includes admission, lunch,
refreshments, and a Directory describing system, utilities and application
developments in the ECS project.
Fees must be paid in Sterling, by cheque or banker's draft or credit card
(Access/Eurocard/Mastercard/Visa can be accepted).
If you are also coming to the Occam User Group technical meeting (see below),
please make your payments separately for the two meetings. Their organisation
and payment arrangements are different.
Registration
Please make your application in advance on the Registration Form. Payment of the
seminar fee should accompany your application.
Delegates should arrive between 08.30 and 09.30 on Wednesday 27th 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 27th 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. Transport will be provided to Edinburgh (Waverley) Station
and Edinburgh Airport at 17.45.
Accommodation
Delegates who are also attending the 11th Technical Meeting of the Occam User
Group (see below) can book accommodation for the night of 26th September through
the Occam User Group. Others requiring accommodation on that night, and anyone
needing accommodation for the night of the 27th, should contact the Seminar
Secretariat at the address below.
Other events
The 11th Technical Meeting of the Occam User Group takes place immediately
before the Seminar, on Monday and Tuesday 25/26th September, allowing delegates
to combine both events in a single visit. The venue for the Occam User Group
will be the University's Appleton Tower, with accommodation at the Pollock
Halls, both sites being about two miles North of the King's Buildings and half a
mile South of the city centre.
Delegates may also wish to note that a course on Occam 2 and the Meiko Computing
Surface will be held on September 20th-22nd; further information can be
requested on the registration form.
Industrial Affiliation
The ECS facility is run and managed by Edinburgh University Computing Service,
for academic and industrial users. An Industrial Affiliation Scheme has been
established to foster collaboration with industry and to promote awareness and
exploitation of the INMOS Transputer and the Meiko Computing Surface. This has
attracted some #750K in commitment in 'cash-and-kind' to date. The Project's
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 CONCURRENT SUPERCOMPUTER SECOND ANNUAL SEMINAR
Wednesday 27th September 1989
James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh
REGISTRATION FORM
Please complete and return as soon as possible to:
Seminar Secretariat, CEP Consultants Ltd,
26-28 Albany Street, Edinburgh EH1 3QH
Name .................................................
Organisation/company ..................................
Address .................................................
.................................................
.................................................
.................................................
Telephone .........................................
Registration fee
By 1st September: #34.50 (including #4.50 VAT)
After 1st September: #55.20 (including #7.20 VAT)
Please enter amount here ............................
Cheques should be made payable to ECS Seminar
(VAT registration number 271 7967 20)
ACCESS/EUROCARD/MASTERCARD/VISA accepted
Please indicate which you wish to use ..............
Credit card number ..................................
Expiry date .........................................
Address to which card account is sent
.................................................
.................................................
.................................................
.................................................
Signed .................................................
Date .................................................
Parking permit required (please tick)........
Please send further information on the
Occam User Group meeting (please tick)........
Please send further information about the
Occam course (please tick)........
ECS Industrial Affiliates should not use this form; a separate registration form
is being sent to them.J.Wexler@edinburgh.ac.uk (08/30/89)
A reminder about the
EDINBURGH CONCURRENT SUPERCOMPUTER SECOND ANNUAL SEMINAR
Wednesday 27th September 1989
James Clerk Maxwell Building, The King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh
which follows immediately after the 11th Technical Meeting of the Occam User
Group, also in Edinburgh.
This is an open seminar reporting the progress and results of the year's work in
the Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project, with a selection of research
projects in science, engineering and artificial intelligence from the expanding
community of more than 200 users. It also offers demonstrations of the Meiko
system and the AMT DAP, and software developed on them.
* The opening session will be chaired by Dr Iann Baron. The day's guest
* speaker, on "Concurrent supercomputing: international perspective", will be
* Dr Paul Messina, Director of concurrent supercomputing facilities at Caltech.
Full details were posted earlier to this newsgroup/bulletin board. If you
missed that, please contact either of the addresses below.
Programme:
08.30 Registration, coffee and demonstrations
09.30 Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project status:
Session chairman, Iann Baron
Introduction: D.J. Wallace
Service and utilisation: M.W. Brown
Software environment: M. Davoren
Project Manager's report: D.B. Mercer
10.30 Coffee
11.00 Concurrent supercomputing - international perspective: Paul Messina
Meiko perspectives: N. Burnett and D. Roweth
Summer scholarships report: G.V. Wilson
12.30 Lunch and demonstrations
14.00 ECS Project reports: Session Chairman, R.N. Ibbett
Parallelising tools: D. Prior
Topology-independent harnesses: L.J. Clarke
D3 - Parallel graphics: M.G. Norman
Machine-independent image processing language -
APPLY: H. Wang (Leeds University)
Linda - shared memory emulation: R. Trehan
Communications performance in occam programs:
Q. Luo
15.30 Tea
16.00 ECS Project reports (continued)
A distributed black-board system for vision
applications: M. Brown
Neural net work: D.J. Wallace
Chemical process simulation: J. Ponton
Oil reservoir modelling: M. Baker
Variational wave functions for high temperature
superconductors: W. Yeung (Queen Mary College)
Lattice field theory: K.C Bowler
17.30 Close
Cost: #34.50 for prompt booking
Contacts for more information:
John Wexler
Edinburgh University Computing Service
The King's Buildings
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ
Great Britain
phone: +44 31 667 1081 ext 2635 / 031 667 1081 ext 2635
fax: +44 31 662 4712 / 031 662 4712
e-mail: J.Wexler@uk.ac.edinburgh (JANET)
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