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Hitachi customers to gain from new versions of NAG libraries

Hitachi customers to gain from new versions of NAG's high-performance libraries.

The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) is pleased to announce that they have signed a new multi-year agreement to make NAG's high-performance computing libraries available on the Hitachi SR8000. The SR8000 is a new generation of high performance computer, developed to meet the demands of large computer simulations that require a performance beyond that available from traditional supercomputers. Increasingly these include weather forecasting, oil exploration, environmental modelling and fluid dynamics - typical applications for NAG's numerical software.

So, under this agreement NAG will make available the Fortran 77, Fortran SMP and Parallel Libraries on the SR8000. And to make sure that customers get the best possible performance and receive excellent support, Hitachi has installed a direct line from NAG to a SR8000 in Japan.

The Leibniz-Rechenzentrum in Munich is an early SR8000 customer and a long time user of the NAG Numerical Libraries. "One of LRZ's foremost software requirements for its Hitachi machine is an efficiently performing port of the Fortran 77 NAG library, especially tuned for the powerful 8-Processor SMP nodes. LRZ therefore welcomes the agreement between Hitachi and NAG to make the NAG libraries available on this platform as soon as possible." Says Dr. Reinhold Bader.

Hitachi and NAG will be working closely together around the world to make sure that as many customers as possible benefit from this powerful combination.

"We look forward to many customers profiting from the powerful combination of the SR8000 and the NAG Libraries" said Mr. Tsutomu Sumimoto, Department Manager of RISC Development Department of Hitachi, Ltd. "and to building on our strong relationship with NAG which started with the agreement for the SR2201."

NAG has a longstanding worldwide reputation for the excellence of its numerical and statistical software, which is used by industry, universities and research institutes to solve complex problems in areas such as research, engineering, life and earth sciences, and financial analysis. "Due to our pre-eminent position as world leaders in high performance numerical computing software, NAG is uniquely placed to take advantage of the processing power of Hitachi's new supercomputer," said Dr Brian Ford, Director of NAG Ltd. "We are delighted to provide SR8000 users with the full range of NAG's Libraries."

15 January 2000
© The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd, Oxford UK, 2000

1. About The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG).
   NAG has almost thirty years experience in developing, porting, distributing and supporting scientific software. NAG supplies a broad range of software libraries, compilers, tools and associated products for the professional programmer in business, industry and education. Based in Oxford, UK, the Numerical Algorithms Group has offices in Chicago, Munich and Tokyo, as well as distributors worldwide.
2. NAG's Fortran SMP and Parallel Libraries
   NAG's Fortran SMP and Parallel Libraries have been specifically developed to provide robust and reliable numerical and statistical software for computationally intensive applications. The latest release, Mark 19, of the NAG Fortran Library has been extended and enhanced to provide over 1,000 numerical and statistical routines in areas such as optimisation, PDEs, ODEs, FFTs and multivariate methods.
3. About Hitachi
   Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1998 (ended March 31, 1999) consolidated sales of 7,977 billion yen ($65.9 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
   *At an exchange rate of 121 yen to the dollar.
4. The SR8000
   The SR8000 has been developed, combining the high effective performance of a vector supercomputer and the high scalability of a parallel computer.
   The following are features of the SR8000:
   (1) The SR8000, including compact models, covers a performance range from 4GFLOPS to 6.1TFLOPS, thus realizing excellent scalability.
   (2) To achieve high performance vector processing using a RISC based architecture, the SR8000 employs innovative architectures such as PVP(Pseudo Vector Processing) and COMPAS(CO-operative Micro-Processors in single Address Space).

Fiona Racher
Marketing Manager
NAG Ltd
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road
Oxford, UK, OX2 8DR
Tel: +44 (0)1865 511245
Fax: +44 (0)1865 310139