by Ute Gärtel
In future, GMD's researchers will also cooperate with IBM's international research and development centres, among them the centre in Yorktown Heights, New York. The main topic is parallel computing together with joint activities in metacomputing (virtual computing on geographically distributed broadband networked parallel computers) and multimedia applications. The exchange of researchers is to secure a synergy effect. Workshops and seminars will complete the cooperation which is subject of a contract signed by IBM's general manager Herbert F. Budd and GMD's Chairman of the Board Prof. Dr. Dennis Tsichritzis at GMD-Birlinghoven.
For joint research activities, GMD installed an IBM parallel computer 9076 SP2 with 34 processors in Sankt Augustin. This is one of the biggest new IBM computers in Europe. The computer is also used for some selected projects from science and industry. For multimedia projects, it will be integrated into the high-speed networks ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and HiPPI (High Performance Parallel Interface). Since June 1993, IBM Germany and GMD in Sankt Augustin have cooperated in the field of parallel computing. An example of this cooperation is the successful parallelization of the central computer program for medium-range weather forecasts, the production code Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), by GMD and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) using IBM's parallel computer SP1. This program allows more reliable and detailed weather forecasts to be computed on a basically unlimited number of processors.
Another example of the cooperation with IBM is the joint project in the field of numerical aerodynamics (POPINDA - Portable Parallelization of Industrial Aerodynamics Applications) which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology. This project is carried out together with Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG, Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus GmbH, Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt Braunschweig, IBM Scientific Center Heidelberg and ORCOM Rechenzentrum GmbH. New topics of an extended cooperation are the advancement of HPF (High Performance FORTRAN) and MPI (Message Passing Interface).
gmd.de