by Karlheinz Schunk
With a workforce of 140,000 and 74 subsidiaries in 28 countries overseas, NEC is one of the world's largest electronics conglomerates. Since opening its first European marketing subsidiary in 1974, NEC has become a major presence on the European market for telecommunication equipment, computers, and semiconductors, and currently operates manufacturing facilities in the UK and Ireland. After its five research laboratories in Japan and two in Princeton, New Jersey, the new laboratory at the GMD TechnoPark will be NEC's first in Europe.
A 64 processor configuration Cenju-3 system will be installed. It will be used for the main research areas which will include numerical algorithms and applications for parallel processing, joint research with GMD, parallel processing support tools for work towards standardization and multimedia communications systems.
The Cenju-3 will be integrated into an unusually diverse network of parallel computers from Thinking Machines, Meiko, Alliant, and Intel - all of which are already available at GMD through the German Research Network to universities and researchers in the European Union.
GMD's new TechnoPark creates an environment where researchers, product developers, suppliers, and users can coordinate their efforts, thereby accelerating the development of new products and services for a rapidly growing global information market. The TechnoPark is widely seen as an important contribution to the development of a future-oriented economy in the Bonn/Cologne region.
gmd.de