departments 2 ncsa contacts

3 editor's note

26 center activities

3 2 book review 4 Let's get down to business: NCSA's Commercial Applications Program research 6 Shaping tomorrow's Internet

8 Antibodies and Antigens page 4 11 Unraveling cosmological mysteries

14 Mapping the body's electrical fields

1 6 Network development-NCSA's link to the future new technology

1 8 World Wide Web servers at NCSA page 8

20 NCSA Mosaic update education 22 Crazy about you, Kid: John Ziebarth makes plans for NCSA's Education and Outreach program

24 NSF grant networks Illinois schools page 15 industrial program 25 NCSA holds partner user meeting

ERRATA, access, Fall1994: Radha Nandkumar, Carol Burwell, page 28 and Vicki Halberstadt contributed to Kenneth Chang's article, "Cornucopia ofCRAYY-MP science," page 9.

Spring 1995 access (ISSN 1064-9409) is published by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with support from the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, other federal agencies, corporate partners, the University oflllinois, and the State of Illinois. Permission to reprint any item in access is freely given, provided that the author and access are acknowledged. Copyright© 1995 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Editor: Fran Bond [email protected] Managing Editor: Melissa LaBorg Johnson [email protected] New Technologies Editor: Ginny Hudak-David Copy Editors: Ginny Hudak-David Paulette Sancken Designer: Linda Jackson

Printing by Flying Color Graphics Inc.

This publication is printed on Evergreen Matte and Evergreen Matte Cover

0 printed on recycled paper GENERAL INFORMATION AND PROGRAMS

Allocations Education and Outreach Orders for Publications, Radha N andkumar Program NCSA Software, and Multimedia (217) 244-0650 John Ziebarth Debbie Shirley allocations@ncsa. uiuc.edu (217) 244-1961 (217) 244-4130 [email protected] [email protected] .edu Vicki Halberstadt (217) 244-5709 Industrial Program Publications Group allocations@ncsa. uiuc.edu John Stevenson Melissa Johnson (21 7) 244-04 7 4 (217) 244-0645 Applications Group/Faculty melissaj@ncsa. uiuc. edu Program Media Relations Melanie Loots John Melchi Software Development Group (217) 244-2921 (217) 244-3049 J ae Allen (information) mloots@ncsa. uiuc.edu jmelchi@ncsa. uiuc.edu (217) 244-34 73 jallen@ncsa. uiuc.edu Chemistry User Group Media Technology Resources Balaji Veeraraghavan Tony Baylis Training Program (217) 333-2754 (217) 244-1990 Alan Craig (information) balajiv@ncsa. uiuc.edu [email protected] (217) 244-1988 [email protected] (services) acraig@ncsa. ui uc.edu Communications Maxine Brown NCSA Operations Deanna Spivey (registration) (217) 244-0072 Sue Lewis (217) 244-1996 maxine@ncsa. uiuc.edu (217) 244-0708 [email protected] [email protected] Community Outreach (217) 244-0710 (services/help) User Services Coordinator Lex Lane Scott Lathrop NCSA Receptionist (217) 244-0642 244-1099 (217) "-'"T..,,- ~~--­ ~__..--'--- F

Computing and C NCSA Security Officer Charles Catlett Michael Smith (217) 333-1163 (217) 244-7714 catlett@ncsa. uiuc.edu msmith@ncsa. uiuc.edu

Consulting-HPC Networking (217) 244-1144 [email protected] 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. consult@ncsa. ui uc.

2 access Spring 1 995 "And Springth the wude nu"-from Cuckoo Song, c. 1250

As the w~rds of a centuries-old song remind us, the world (is) new in spring. In keeping with the season, this issue of access introduces some new ideas and people affiliated with NCSA. Using high-performance computing to solve real-world problems for the business community is the thrust ofNCSA's recently formed Commercial Applications Program-a collaborative undertaking with several UIUC colleges and NCSA's industrial partners (see page 4). An innovative federally funded project to organize large databases of digital information on the Internet is described in "Shaping tomorrow's Internet" (page 6). Research utilizing some ofNCSA's newer machines is covered in "Antibodies and antigens" (page 8), "Unraveling cosmological mysteries" (page 11), and "Mapping the body's electrical fields" (page 14). Read "Network development- NCSA's link to the future" to find out how NCSA stays at the leading edge in network­ ing technology (page 16). NCSA's role in pioneering the technology of scalable information servers is outlined by some of its developers in "World Wide Web servers at NCSA" (page 18). "Crazy about you, Kid: John Ziebarth makes plans for NCSA's Education and Outreach Program" (page 22) intro­ duces NCSA's newest associate director as he conceptualizes efforts to advance computational technology in classrooms and the community. A report ofNCSA's first Industrial User Meeting is on page 25. Rounding out this issue is the coverage of a variety of center activities, beginning on page 26, and a review of two recent books about the Web and NCSA Mosaic on page 32. -Fran Bond, Editor

PRODUCT

GRIN I I I I I I 1111

1111

1111

1111 • • • •

YERR 1111 1111 1111 1111 II II II II

Illustration by John Havlik access Spring 1 995 3 Let's get down to business: NCSA's

igh-performance computing of opportunities to do business simu­ database management software is not just for engineers lations-what makes companies on the testbed (see sidebar, page 5). and scientists anymore. It work, what makes them profitable­ Partners who bring database prob­ is also for the corporate ex­ in much the same way that we have lems to the testbed will be able to Hecutive who wants to detect unusual done product simulations here." benchmark their applications soft­ customer buying patterns, like the ware. discount retailer who discovered that Putting business to the test Assume that a financial corpora­ people tended to buy diapers and beer The Commercial Applications Pro­ tion like J.P. Morgan-one of NCSA's on Friday after work. Place the two gram includes an integration testbed, 11 industrial partners-wants to items next to each other, and voila!, designed to allow industrial partners collect a large amount of data and sales shoot up. to prototype new systems before tak­ use that data to predict bond prices It's for the CEO of a major credit ing them to their own corporations. or exchange rates. Data management card company who wishes to market At the heart of the testbed are software is essential of course, but a product to a targeted group of the new Cray Research Superserver the testbed will also contain the pre­ consumers without sending expensive 6400, the Thinking Machines CM-5, dictive tools necessary to make such mailings to every credit card holder the CONVEX Exemplar, and the SGI projections. These predictive tools, in the country. The results? Cut mail­ POWER CHALLENGE Array [see based on intelligent algorithms (see ing costs by a factor of twenty and get access, Fall 1994, pages 4-8]. NCSA sidebar), recognize patterns in bil­ a sixfold improvement in response staff will examine the performance lions of pieces of data and use these rate. These and other commercial of emerging commercial information patterns to make predictions about applications are often impossibly software, coupled with practical prob­ the data. slow or just plain impossible to carry lems supplied by the industrial part­ out with mainframe computers. ners. By using real-world problems Bringing in faculty and Enter the NCSA Commercial Ap­ supplied by the industrial partners, students plications Program, a new centerwide the results will be representative of The Commercial Applications venture in cooperation with the actual, not theoretical, performance. Program is not a one-way street for UIUC's College of Commerce and One of the key issues in solving industrial partners only. In fact, it Business Administration, Depart­ commercial problems is data storage is more like a freeway with lanes ments of Computer Science and and management. NCSA's Data­ for faculty and student research, Mechanical and Industrial Engineer­ base Group has installed curriculum development, ing (of the College of Engineering), three major pieces of vendor participation, and and NCSA's industrial partners. potential commercial "NCSA intends to build a major spin-offs as well. effort in scalable infoserving," says NCSA Director Larry Smarr, "just as we've done with scalable computing for science and engineering. Our staff is excited about the opportunity to explore the applications of both data serving and data mining." It is a program whose time has come, according to Joe Blackmon, the program manager ofNCSA's Industrial Partner Program. "I really believe that the application of high­ performance computing to this area will have a much bigger impact than it has had on engineering-:-not that we are going to slack up on our engi­ neering emphasis." Kern Ahlers, Caterpillar's manager for university relations at NCSA, concurs. "We [Caterpillar] see a lot

BY SARA LATTA

4 access Spring 1995 Commercial Applications Program

Faculty from the College of Com­ merce and Business Administration may form research collaborations with NCSA staff. They may choose to work with the industrial partners on a particular research problem, participate in seminars or workshops, or incorporate HPCC commercial applications into their curriculum. Undergraduate or graduate students from the college who want to learn more about business and high­ performance computing might do an internship at NCSA. "There's a clear need from our point of view to link with technology applications that are at the cutting Melani e Loots (Photo by Thompson­ Howard Thomas (Photo by Thompson­ edge," says Howard Thomas, dean McClellan) McClellan) of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. "There's an analytic tradition in this school [the comparative advantage of a business "Workshops of this kind," says Business School] that marries well school in Illinois is to link with the Melanie Loots, associate director for with the tradition of engineering and traditional strengths of a land grant NCSA's Applications Program, "are science departments on campus. The university." One of the missions of a crucial in bringing together industrial corporations are a reflection of where land grant university, Thomas ex­ users with real-world problems; our students will be employed. We plains, is to promote economic and academic researchers in business, should be trying to work with them structural developments in the state. finance, and computer science who not just to develop initiatives that are "It strikes me that the link between provide a theoretical framework; at the cutting edge of applications, ourselves [the college], NCSA, the en­ vendor experts on the available but to translate those initiatives back gineering college, and the industrial hardware and software; and NCSA into the curriculum. partners is a re-interpretation of the programming staff with expertise in "I'm a great believer in relation­ land grant mission for the twenty­ developing parallel applications." ships between science and business," first century. It creates the architec­ The first workshop, "Commercial Thomas continues, "and I think the ture and the framework in which Applications and Parallel Process­ people can invent and develop new ing," will be on April 24-25 in the projects. It creates a whole new set Beckman Institute. Scalable software of opportunities." And, adds Thomas, the potential for commercially viable NCSA is a door to UIUC solutions products. High-performance computing is Cray Research Inc., Thinking not just for scientists and engineers Here is some of the software that Machines Corp., Silicon Graphics anymore. It is for scientists and will be available on the commercial Inc., and Convex Computing Corp. engineers and the business people applications testbed. have committed teams of experts in who work with them to develop new database and business applications computer applications. Database management to lend expertise to the Commercial "NCSA is our door into the univer­ • ORACLE parallel query and parallel server Applications Program. sity," says Caterpillar's Ahlers. "We • SYBASE bring intellectually stimulating prob­ • INFORMIX Education and workshops lems to the academic world; and in NCSA will host a series of commer­ return, we get access to the technol­ Intelligent algorithms cial applications workshops for inter­ ogy they have developed." • • Classification and regression ested industrial partners, faculty trees from the computer science and Sara Latta is a freelance science writer. • Neural network systems mechanical and industrial engineer­ • Simulated evolution and genetic ing departments and the College of systems Commerce, national researchers, and vendors.

access S p ring 1 995 5 r h

Shaping tomorrow's Internet

nterspace-that's what NCSA "There's nothing magical NCSA Researchers at UIUC's new Research Scientist Bruce Schatz Mosaic alone can do to organize the Grainger Engineering Library Infor­ calls the Internet of tomorrow. Internet," Hardin says, which is why mation Center, led by Director Will­ Instead of connecting computer researchers are focusing on ways to iam Mischo, already have started Iservers only, as today's networks do, improve the Internet itself. gathering materials for an online Interspace will connect information. DLI aims to set protocols for collection of 10,000 engineering and Interspace is both a metaphor and publishing and organizing Internet science journal articles, complete a concrete plan for a more organized, information and to develop advanced with pictures, graphics, and citations. more useful Internet. In October linking and searching techniques. Several publishers will provide 1994, NCSA and UIUC researchers Connecting information, not just documents in SGML (Standard Gen­ began a four-year federally funded servers, will mean users can, in effect, eralized Markup Language) format project to develop a small-scale pilot "ask the Internet a question," Hardin that can be directly downloaded to Interspace, a database of the full text says, "and get a useful answer." the testbed server. The publishers of selected engineering and science Schatz is the principal investigator include the Institute of Electrical and books and periodicals. in the four-year Illinois DLI project, Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Com­ Once the system is up and run­ supported by grants from the National puter Society, American Institute of ning, students and faculty at UIUC Science Foundation, NASA, and the Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and other Big Ten universities will be Department of Defense's Advanced American Physical Society (APS), able to access the electronic collection Research Projects Agency. In October American Society of Civil Engineers via a special version of NCSA Mosaic, 1994, these institutions awarded more (ASCE), American Society of Agricul­ which NCSA's Software Development than $24 million to six universities tural Engineering (ASAE), Institute Group is designing for the project. for DLI work. of Physics (lOP), and John Wiley and Sons. Other publishers are in Bringing order to Internet The NCSA-UIUC collaboration negotiation. Schatz and his team are part of a Locally DLI research is a joint effort Collaborating with publishers for nationwide effort called the Digital among NCSA, the UIUC Department the testbed documents not only frees Library Initiative (DLI), so named of Computer Science, the University the researchers from having to create because it seeks to bring order to the Library, and the UIUC Graduate data for the testbed, Schatz says, Internet just as libraries and librari­ School of Library and Information but also jump-starts industry on ans have brought order to books and Science, where Schatz is an associate standardizing and organizing Internet periodicals. With the aid of a card professor. information and sets a precedent for catalog and shelves organized by The Illinois project is two parts. other publishers to follow. "Eventu­ the Dewey Decimal System, one can The first involves developing a ally, industry will have the lead in locate a specific book from among the small-scale testbed of the Interspace providing information electronically, UIUC Library's 15 million volumes concept. The second is conducting so it only makes sense to involve them in a matter of minutes. The same research into the technology and from the beginning," Schatz says. cannot be said about data on the user sociology of a digital library­ The documents will be combined Internet. incorporating some of the findings with existing sources of information, The Internet and applications like into the existing testbed and making including major periodical indexes Gopher and NCSA Mosaic "are easy recommendations for future direc­ in science and engineering and the access to information in terms of tions. BIMA Grand Challenge database in browsing, but to get to a specific piece radio astronomy [see access, Spring of data quickly is a different story," 1994, page 10]. These resources will says Joseph Hardin, NCSA associate be transparently linked to the director for software development. testbed.

BY CHRISTOPHER ADASIEWICZ

6 access Spring 1995 "is the ability to see information on a Examining other issues screen as if they were pages in a During the four years of the project, book. People tell us they remember thousands of U niversi ty of Illinois information by where they saw it." students and faculty at all campuses, Bishop says users want the ability students and faculty at other Big Ten to customize search protocols, display schools, and NSF MetaCenter users characteristics, and the interface are expected to access the testbed. itself. "And they want easy access Hence, the testbed affords research­ to charts and figures. Faculty and ers opportunities to study in real time students say they read these first," the technical and sociological issues she says. related to organizing and searching Internet information. Other institutions researching Larry Jackson, NCSA Mosaic Five other universities are pioneering technical manager, will lead a team DLI projects: Carnegie Mellon Univer­ of software developers to create an sity, the University of California at enhanced version of the application Berkeley, the University of California Bruce Schatz (Photo by Thompson-McClellan) that will enable users to access the at Santa Barbara, the University of testbed's SGML documents. Michigan, and Stanford University. Jackson's group is exploring how Scientists at these institutions are Other NCSA involvement to design an interface that meets the investigating issues such as how to In addition, other NCSA researchers needs of sight-impaired users. By catalogue and search video and mul­ are working on DLI-related projects. setting rules for how the interface timedia documents. These universi­ NCSA's Mike Folk, a researcher in and the information it retrieves look ties' projects seek to organize different the Software Development Group, on the screen, the researchers can kinds of data-environmental is developing digital library technolo­ run NCSA Mosaic alongside applica­ information, earth and space data, gies that will make it easier for the tions that translate video into audio. geographical images, and maps- public to access astronomical and NCSA software developers also are as opposed to engineering journal earth science data. Also working looking into ways NCSA Mosaic can articles. on the three-year project, funded track the operations its users perform. The DLI project is a collaborative with a grant from NASA, are NCSA This technology will enable the digi­ one among these schools. Researchers Research Scientists Richard Crutcher tal library interface to collect data on from each project will meet periodi­ and Robert Wilhelmson (Applica­ how people utilize the system. cally to share their developments; the tions), Research Programmer Nancy The project's sociology group, led first such meeting is scheduled for Yeager (Computing and Communica­ by Library and Information Science the UIUC campus this spring. Using tions), and Schatz. Assistant Professor Ann Bishop NCSA Mosaic, the groups are keeping Folk's work with science data, as (principal investigator) and Associate in touch with each other by posting opposed to journal text, is representa­ Professor of Sociology Leigh Star, is project notes and papers on the World tive of the challenges researchers using surveys and focus groups to Wide Web. Each DLI project has its face if they truly want to extend the assess the needs of the digital library own home page, all accessible from Interspace concept to the Internet­ user community and make recommen­ the URL on the opposite page. the need to deal with many different dations to the technical developers. kinds of information. .A Already the group has interviewed potential DLI users-undergraduates, Christopher Adasiewicz, a senior in graduate students, and faculty-and Journalism at UIUC, is a student drawn early conclusions. "One of intern in the NCSA Director's the most important features Office. people want," Bishop says,

access Spring 1995 7 The complex between the antibody fragment HyHEL-5 and hen-egg lysozyme. The key amino acid residues involved in complexation are shown (large spheres). The negatively charged amino acids are red ; the positively charged ones, blue. The small spheres highlight other charged residues in the antibody fragment and hen-egg lysozyme. (Courtesy Shankar Subramaniam ) Antigens

here's an old saying about curing the common cold that Biophys­ Ticist Shankar Subramaniam likes to recall when explaining why he models antibodies and antigens: "With medicine, it takes a week to cure a cold; without it, seven days." During the early stages of infection, says Subramaniam, "your body is really trying to learn and grope and adapt to the foreign particle that is coming in. It's a way of maturing to a stage where the immune system is able to tackle the infection." In the past several decades, biological and medical research has deciphered many of the biochemical reactions by which the human immune system recognizes a particle as foreign and launches an attack. Where things get fuzzy, however, is in deciphering the basis underlying this recognition. This knowledge is essential to accelerating relief and to targeting medicines more accurately. To fine tune the process of biological recognition, NCSA Research Scientist Subramaniam is leading a team of computational biologists and computer scientists at NCSA who are modeling how one of the body's key defensive mechanisms, the antibodies, recognize and bind with one of the largest of microbial invaders, the antigens. Recently, the group success­ fully computed the complete nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and combined the electrostatic steering forces obtained from this equation with the diffusive motion of Brownian dynamics. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation is a fundamental equation in electro­ statics once considered so difficult to solve as to be intractable. Previous efforts had solved the linear version of the equation, which does not account for the electrostatic affects of the ionic medium on the antigen's diffusion in the blood stream. The added realism of the nonlinear equation made it possible for Subramaniam and his colleagues to model the monoclonal antibody HyHEL-5 binding to the hen-egg lysozome at a rate that replicated experimental results-a first for antibody-antigen modelers.

Antibodies continued on page 10

BY HoLLY KoRAB

access Spring 1995 9 Antibodies continued from page 9 employed a multigrid technique, a methodology that more efficiently The immune war solves equations on grids by resolving Every time you eat, every time you them at different levels of detail. breathe, foreign particles enter your The large memory required for this body. Your immune system is called equation is amenable to a solution upon to destroy an estimated billion on NCSA's CONVEX C3880, or C3. different types of potential invaders, The linear Poisson-Boltzmann each of which can bind only to a equation had been solved before lymphocyte uniquely configured to using a single-mesh approach, but complement the invader's chemical not with a nonlinear technique. The composition. Amazingly, your im­ existing methods were so slow as to mune system is usually successful. discourage people from doing so. "Our The key to the system's success­ method is so fast that it translates as well as the reason for its seemingly into a new capability," says Saied, slow pace-is its capacity to be flex­ who developed the algorithm for ible yet specific. Rather than having running the equation on NCSA's a billion different lymphocytes patrol­ machines. ling your blood vessels, the immune Shankar Subramaniam Once the electrostatic forces were system sends out a few lookouts who, (Photo by Thompson-McClellan) obtained, Kozack and Subramaniam upon detecting an invader, rapidly used Brownian dynamics to model sort through its genetic library to the diffusional motion of the antigen construct the suitable T cells orB to the antibody. cells to replicate and eventually sub­ reaction rates caused by changes in "Brownian motion is what we call due the invader. T cells are lympho­ the protein's genetic arrangement. an embarrassingly parallel equation," cytes that originate primarily in the Their model depicts an antibody says Subramaniam in explaining why thymus and destroy fungi, viruses, surrounded by an ionic medium. An­ they chose to model this force respon­ and parasites by engulfing and tigens were placed around the edges sible for diffusion on NCSA's Think­ digesting them. B cells are formed of a box at 500,000 different points ing Machines CM-5 and SGI POWER in the bone marrow and give rise to and, one at a time, allowed to diffuse CHALLENGE. Brownian motion antibodies, which confer resistance randomly just as they would in blood. is the seemingly random motion of against most bacteria. If an antigen bonded strongly (in the small particles as they are buffeted Antibodies are Y-shaped chains correct orientation) with the antibody about by collisions with other mol­ of polypeptides that are identical for during one of these trajectories, ecules in a solution. Each of the a small section of amino acids at the Subramaniam considered the reaction 500,000 trajectories were basically forked end of the Y. The attractive over. If it bounced back or wandered calculations of Brownian motion. and repulsive interactions between off, the encounter was considered By combining the nonlinear Pois­ the tip of the fork of the antibody and unsuccessful. By averaging these son-Boltzmann equation with Brown­ the reactive portion of the antigen trajectories, he generated a rate of ian motion, Subramaniam says they determines whether the two will bond reaction for the antibody-antigen now have quantitative rates of reac­ weakly or strongly. The binding affin­ encounter. Because it would be im­ tion they can use to look at absolute ity between an antibody and antigen possible to model the entire antibody­ values of reaction rates. is the basis of molecular recognition. antigen complex, only the 4,000 atoms involved in bonding were modeled. Rational design Identifying the enemy To model the two forces that pro­ Obtaining quantitative reaction rates Subramaniam's group is identifying pel antigens toward antibodies-the is the first step along a path to ratio­ antibody's "association motifs"-the electrostatic forces represented in the nal design and engineering, says binding affinity associated with a full nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann Richard Willson, an associate profes­ genetic arrangement by measuring equation and Brownian motion­ sor of chemical engineering and bio­ the rates of reaction for the mono­ Subramaniam teamed up with Faisal chemical and biophysical sciences at clonal antibody HyHEL-5 binding Saied, assistant professor in the the University of Houston, who was with the hen-egg lysozome. Mter UIUC Department of Computer one of two biologists whose experi­ establishing its benchmark rate, they Science, graduate student Michael ments verified Subramaniam's model. make slight alterations in the genetic Holst, and postdoctoral associate composition of the antibody and Richard Kozack. The new method measure its effect on the rate at that arose from their collaboration Antibodies continued on page 31 which this "mutant" binds with the antigen. In this way they can detect and record the subtle changes in

10 access S p ring 1 995 rom how gravity tugs at stars and galaxies, scien­ measurements, some come up with an answer only one­ tists know there's far more to the universe than third, or less, of the critical density. what they see. Astronomers have puzzled for more Primack and his colleagues, however, do not see a Fthan a decade over the nature of this dark matter crisis. In fact, through their computer simulations, they and how much of it there is. Even what little of the think they may understand enough of the unseen part of universe that can be seen offers yet more mysteries to the universe to be able to explain the part that is seen. cosmologists. "Every single measurement people have cited to show that the universe has less than critical density, we have Modeling dark matter-cold and hot reproduced in our simulations," Primack says. To try to understand the universe, ghosts and all, Primack's theory divides dark matter like a water researchers led by Joel Primack, physicist at University faucet: hot and cold. Hot dark matter whizzed at close to of California, Santa Cruz, and Anatoly Klypin, astrono­ the speed of light in the early universe; cold dark matter mer at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, have sloshed about more sluggishly. taken advantage of the multigigabytes of memory on Galaxies coalesced from slight lumps in the cold dark NCSA's CONVEX C3880. They have created a universe­ matter. A decade ago, several researchers, including within-a-computer that looks much like the real thing. Primack, put forth a model with just cold dark matter. "We're working on the edge, and we're not sure any It worked well, but predicted too many galaxies. of the assumptions about dark matter are right, but ex­ To fix the earlier model, hot dark matter was added­ perimenters at Los Alamos have observed neutrino oscil­ roughly one part hot for each three parts cold. The high lations indicating that neutrinos have mass in the range velocities of the hot dark matter would have smoothed required by our models. It's beginning to look promising," out the lumps somewhat and trimmed galaxy production Primack says. "And if it does work, it will be a triumph to some degree. that cosmological observations and supercomputer calcu­ Data from recent experiments could shed light on the lations actually predicted the neutrino mass." hot dark matter. The big bang created a torrent of ghostly That recent surveys by the Hubble Space Telescope particles called neutrinos-in a gallon there are about failed to find dark matter does not concern Primack. a million of these primordial specks-and there are "That has nothing to say about the quantity of dark indications that two of the three types of neutrinos have matter," Primack says. "It just says it's not in the form a smidgen of mass. of dim stars." With these values plugged in, the cold plus hot dark For theoretical reasons, many astrophysicists believe matter model correctly produces such numbers as the av­ the average density of matter in the universe is likely to erage speed of galaxies and the density of galaxy clusters. equal a value called the critical density. A denser cosmos Computer simulations by NCSA Research Scientist eventually stops expanding and then collapses into the Mike Norman and NCSA Research Assistant Greg Bryan "Big Crunch," while a sparser universe disperses into have shown the x-ray properties of galaxy clusters in the nothingness. The critical density is the dividing line-the cold plus hot dark matter model agree with observation universe still expands forever, but the rate of expansion as well [see access, Summer 1994, pages 3 and 27]. is continually slowing down. Given its success so far, Primack is cautiously hopeful. The problem is when astronomers look up in the skies, The torrent of data now coming in from ground- and many see a sparse universe. Adding up visible matter space-based telescopes will rigorously test the predictions with estimates of the dark matter based on indirect of the competing cosmological models. "If any theory can survive," Primack says, "maybe it's even true."

BY KENNETH CHANG Cosmology continued on page 12

access Spring 1995 11 Joel Primack (Photo by Don Harris, Courtesy University of California, Santa Cruz)

Distribution of galaxies in two cosmological simulations showing (left) Cold plus 11 Hot (neutrino) Dark Matter, (right) Cold Dark Matter. Blue represents ::::;1 0 ; red, 12 5 ~1 0 · solar masses. Filaments are sharper in the CHDM simulation ; clusters are bigger in the COM. Computations on NCSA's CONVEX C3880 ; visualizations on Almaden Research Center's IBM Power Visualization System. (Courtesy of Joel Primack and Anatoly Klypin)

Cosmology continued from page 11 and now the CONVEX C3880, Melott offers a resolution to the paradox. Simulating galactic chasms In addition to clarifying the Adrian Melott (Photo by R. Steve Dick, Astronomers mapping out the night qualitative picture of the universe's Courtesy University of Kansas, Lawrence) sky have found the visible universe a history, the work ofMelott and his richly textured fabric: long threads of collaborators provides an important galaxies woven into wide, thin sheets tool that allows researchers running with immense, shadowy, mysterious computer simulations to quickly test would contract more quickly in one chasms of apparent nothingness lying and refine specific theories. Melott's direction, forming a pancake-shaped in between. picture of the universe melds together object. Those observations would seem to the "pancake" theory proposed by Zel'dovich and his research group­ be a wonderful validation of a theory Russian theorist Yakov Zel'dovich in including students Sergei Shandarin, put forth decades ago by Russian the 1970s with the "hierarchical clus­ now a professor at the University of astrophysicists that predicted such tering" model assembled by American Kansas, and Klypin-developed a intricate formations-except research­ and British theorists. In the latter mathematical approximation that ers have long since discarded that view, galaxies, which have about 100 rather accurately describes this theory. It does not correctly describe billion times the mass of the Sun, pancaking process. how smaller objects, namely galaxies, formed first. "Things just fall to­ But Zel'dovich's group had no came into being. gether and merge, and then they means to visualize what came out of Conversely, the contemporary pic­ merge with bigger things," Melott the equations. "What they had imag­ ture for the evolution of the universe, says. Galaxies gather together to ined was a disk here, a disk there, which does work well in explaining form clusters, which, in turn, clump everywhere a disk, disk," Melott galaxies, does not explain the voids, into superclusters. says. When the Russians were able threads, and sheets. Conversely, in the pancake model to model their ideas on computers, "There's an apparent contradiction the first structures are much larger, they found something different. "That here," says Adrian Melott, professor formed from blobs with the mass of demonstrates the power of a computer of physics and astronomy at the Uni­ hundreds of thousands of galaxies. model to surprise you," Melott says. versity of Kansas, Lawrence. Based Because the blobs would not ''You do get thin surfaces, but they on thousands of hours of simulations, have been perfectly even spheres, are in an interconnected network"­ first on NCSA's CRAY-2 computer Zel'dovich envisioned that the mass filaments and sheets.

1 2 access Spring 1 995 at much larger models, which are cur­ rently limited by the amount of mem­ ory and time available on a computer. Melott is organizing a one-day session at this June's conference of the American Astronomical Society that will look at the dynamics of large-scale structures. .A.

Kenneth Chang is a doctoral candidate in physics from UIUC and is currently enrolled in the Science Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium (GC3)

One goal of the Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium (GC3) is developing parallel versions of the most frequently used algorithms for cosmological simulations developing new, more powerful algorithms that expand the range of physical length and mass scales that can be simulat­ ed in a single computation. Many of these codes will be made publicly Melott and collaborators have shown that there is a continuous transition between available in 1995. The consortium uses NCSA's the Zel'dovich pancake and hierarchical clustering pictu res in the universe. The CM-5 for simulating the formation top row represents the pancake model; the bottom left, hierarchical clustering. of galaxy clusters and compares Clustering in the universe has proceeded in the way represented in the bottom them with observations of clusters in the universe [see access, Spring right and middle images. (Courtesy Adrian Melott) 1994, pages 14-16, 28]. In January 1995, members of the GC3 convened at NCSA under By the early 1980s, the pancake Exchanging ideas the sponsorship of NSF. Those theory had fallen out of favor. Then What Melott has done is adapt attending were Principal Investiga­ in 1985, astronomers measuring the Zel'dovich's method for hierarchical tor Jeremiah Ostriker, (Princeton distance to thousands of galaxies clustering models. This modern up­ University), Ralph Roskies (Pitts­ found the same filament and sheet dating of Zel'dovich's approximation burgh Super-computing Center), Dennis Gannon (Indiana Univer­ structures. "It was a big shock for theory best describes the evolution of sity), Edmund Bertschinger (MIT), some people," Melott says, "because it superclusters-sheets and filaments and Lars Hernquist (University looked like nothing they had expected. included-in all kinds of models. of California, Santa Cruz). NSF Instead, it looked like predictions Primack and colleagues have used visitors were Morris Aizenman, from the pancake theory." Melott's approximation to test out executive officer of Astronomical Meanwhile, during a 1983 visit variations of his cold plus hot dark Sciences Division; Loretta lnglehart, to Moscow, Mel ott, Shandarin, and matter theory. "You can take at least centers program director, Math­ collaborators found pancake-like a first look at a lot of models and see ematics and Physical Sciences features in the first computer simula­ if they're okay," Primack says. Klypin Directorate; and Richard Kaplan, tion of the cold dark matter model. was a postdoctoral research associate centers program director for the Division of Advanced Scientific Pancakes began popping up in other at the University of Kansas, along­ Computing. Mike Norman (NCSA/ people's computer simulations as side Mellott and Shandarin, when he UIUC) hosted the site visit. well! They proved to be a generic did his pioneering work on the cold Gc3 is funded through a feature throughout a modern family plus hot model. five-year HPCC Program Grand of models, including the cold plus Melott says that the approximation Challenge grant of $3.2 million. hot model favored by Primack. should also allow researchers to look 3 GC : http:// zeus.ncsa. uiuc.edu:8080/ Primack's research group: GC3_Home_Page.html http://physics.ucsc.edu/groups/cosmology.html

access Spring 1995 13 MAPPING THE BODY'S ELECTRICAL FIELDS

undreds oftimes each Revolutionizing diagnostic The process employed by MacLeod second, the brain sends procedures and Johnson works like this. To "see" electrical impulses racing A team of computer scientists, physi­ the electrical activity on the surface through the body's web ologists, and physicians at the of the heart, technicians attach elec­ Hof nerve cells to the motor neurons, University ofUtah are developing trodes to a patient's skin at optimally where they initiate the chemical reac­ a diagnostic tool so that doctors may selected sites across the chest and tions that cause muscles to contract. not have to undertake risky preopera­ limbs. As in ECGs, these electrodes About a century ago, scientists rec­ tive procedures. Using NCSA's detect the changes in voltage that ognized that these excitation currents POWER CHALLENGE, Christopher accompany each heart beat. Replac­ produce an electrical field which can Johnson, associate chairman of com­ ing the 3 to 10 electrodes in a conven­ be detected as small voltages in the puter science; Robert MacLeod, assis­ tional ECG with 16 to 192 electrodes, skin or scalp. By measuring changes tant professor of internal medicine; a process known as "body surface in the patterns of the body's electrical Peter Heilbrun, chairman of the De­ potential mapping," or BSPM, pro­ activity, researchers could detect partment of Neurological Surgery; duces a more detailed, contoured map some forms of heart disease and and John Schmidt, research associate of electrical activity on the entire sur­ neurological disorders. Electrocardio­ of computer science, are simulating face of the thorax for every instance grams of the heart (ECGs) or electro­ the electrical fields emanating from in time. encephalograms of the brain (EEGs) the heart and brain to replace the Although these body surface maps measure these voltages; however, snapshots from ECGs and EEGs with reveal more about the underlying they provide physicians with only a full-scale, 3D models. Johnson is electrical activity of the heart than snapshot of heart or brain activity. team leader for Utah's Scientific does the standard ECG, the signals These glimpses help doctors spot Computing and Imaging Group (SCI). are somewhat smoothed and lack disorders but are not always suffi­ "Our goal is to develop these definition. To estimate the electrical cient for diagnosing them. For the techniques to the point where we can activity right at the heart, the electri­ latter, doctors turn to other tech­ provide information from painless cal readings are then incorporated niques; in rare cases, to surgery. measurements made from the body's into a large-scale finite element model Such is the case with some abnor­ surface," says MacLeod. "Now, this of the human thorax constructed mal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). information is only available through from MRI scans. Because the shape For patients who do not respond highly invasive diagnostic proce­ and constitution of the thorax affect to drug treatment or pacemakers, dures." how heart activity is transmitted to cardiac surgeons often must open the skin, the researchers include all the chest and examine the heart with tissues and organs, including fat, in a roving, hand-held electrode or a their model. flexible grid of surface electrodes to Simulations of brain activity are determine just where to operate. similar. By placing an array of scalp For temporal lobe epilepsy, electrodes, ranging from the standard neurosurgeons determine whether 32 to up to 128, the researchers record a patient who is not responding to the electrical activity from the brain medication has an operable form of (the EEG) on the surface of the head. the disorder by opening the cranium They use these EEG recordings and attaching electrodes directly to along with a geometrical model of a the brain to identify whether the dis­ patient's head to localize abnormal ordered electrical activity is highly electrical activity. localized (thus operable) or diffused Before electrical imaging proce­ over the entire brain. dures start showing up in clinics, however, the SCI team has more work to do. The geometric modeling and the process of "seeing" back (an Christopher Johnson (Photo by Terry Newfarmer, University of Utah ; Courtesy of BY HoLLY KoRAB University Communications, University of Utah)

14 access Spring 1995 Computer models from SCI , clockwise from upper left: Cutaway models of thorax in defibrillation studies (left) and heart (right) showing electrodes in green cavity and pink vessel. Color-coded lines indicate current density near the heart in which a tetrhedral­ ized slice (blue) is superimposed around the heart (red). Finite element model of a head profile showing current densities on the surface of the scalp, skull , and brain . (Courtesy Christopher Johnson , SCI , University of Utah)

inverse problem) involve tremendous "Now that SGI has produced such regulate an arrhythmic heart beat. amounts of computations that now a powerful set of computing and As the heart begins to beat irregular­ require supercomputers or distrib­ graphics hardware, we can do both ly, the defibrillator applies a small uted high-end workstations. To hone computing and visualization on a jolt of electricity that returns the their electrical imaging technique single platform. This has allowed for heart to its normal beat. as a diagnostic tool, Johnson must a straightforward transition between A patient described the jolt as develop more efficient mathematical various high-end SGI workstations feeling like someone had given him and computational techniques. Early and NCSA's POWER CHALLENGE." a hard tap on the back, but when he results have the team excited about turned around no one was there. "He the possibilities, assures Johnson, Commercial applications knew he had just had a potentially "but they are not there yet. Recently industrial biomedical life-threatening arrhythmia, but he "We have developed software for researchers have shown an interest was still walking around," says this project using C, c++, and For­ in techniques being developed by Johnson. tran. All software has been written Johnson and his colleagues. This past Another use for this technology is by the SCI Research Group over a year the SCI group began simulating in conjunction with cardiac pacers, period of several years," says Johnson. the various configurations of elec­ says Johnson. Someday implanted "As is the case with most computa­ trodes and stimulation impulses for electrodes may replace standard tionally intensive users, we have an experimental internal cardiac pacemakers to correct electrical used a variety of computers, includ­ defibrillator designed by engineers at abnormalities in the heart. ing IBMs, SGis, Crays, and Suns. Pacesetter. The internal defibrillators We compute on just about anything are implanted in the chest with elec­ Electrical fields continued on page 31 we can get access to. In the recent trodes placed near a patient's heart, past we were using clusters of IBM where they automatically detect and RS/6000s for the numerically inten­ sive work, such as mesh generation and finite element analysis, and SGI Christopher Johnson and the SCI: http://www.cs.utah.edu/-sci machines for geometric modeling and visualization.

access Spring 1995 15 Network development­ NCSA's link to the future

ccess to computers, work­ In the past, any time physical stations, and peripherals media needed upgrading to a higher Wide-area networking would be slowed greatly transfer rate, the protocols that ran projects if it were not for cutting­ on it also had to change. With ATM, In wide-area networking, NCSA cur­ edgeA local-area networks that tie changing from the current T3 connec­ rently is involved in a project using them all together. While NCSA is tion (45 Mbps) to an OC3 line (155 ATM on the BLANCA gigabit testbed. pioneering the use of high-perfor­ Mbps) linking the NSF supercomput­ The work is in collaboration with the mance computing in the research ing centers will involve only a change University ofWisconsin-Madison, environment, it is pushing the of interface cards in the routers. None AT&T, Bell Laboratories, Sandia envelope of networking as well. of the protocols, applications on the National Laboratory, UIUC's Depart­ "We're working with a wide range hosts, or applications on the routers ment of Computer Science, and of projects that involve anything from have to change. This capability can others. Developed from AT&T's local-area to wide-area networking be carried up to OC192 (9.6 Gbps) Experimental University Network and using several different technolo­ without having to modify the ATM (XUNET), BLANCA spans the gies," says Randy Butler, technical protocol in any way. country at 45 Mbps, with the trunk program manager of the Networking "The architectures and protocols from NCSA to Wisconsin's Madison Development Group. Along with for local-area networks have always campus reaching 622 Mbps. team members John Quinn, Vijay been different from wide-area net­ "We've just started a wide-area Rangarajan, Von Welch, Paul works," says Butler. "Now it can be network project called the Very Zawada, Patrick Dorn, and Jon more seamless than it has been in High Bandwidth Network Servic~, Dugan, Butler's goal is to keep NCSA the past, because ATM scales be­ or vBNS," says Butler. "vBNS is poised at the forefront of networking. tween the different physical media." an ATM-based network in col- Another advantage of ATM is that laboration with MCI and the ATM revolutionizes voice and video can run on the same NSF supercomputer centers. connectivity physical media that carries data. It will soon be online at 155 One such project involves paving the "Right now, your data line has to Mbps, with 622 Mbps way for the new wave oflocal-area be a separate physical medium than planned for later. Right networking called Asynchronous your voice line for your phone," says now we are ready to Transfer Mode (ATM). ATM is a new Butler. "ATM has the opportunity connect all of our FDDI global standard that many think will to bring those two together. You can [Fiber Distributed Data revolutionize connectivity. take a single medium and use virtual Interface] and HIPPI "It's the first big international circuits to segment it into separate [High Performance standard that's been accepted by lines for voice and data." Parallel Interface] both the data and telecommunica­ Another ATM project involves networks. Eventually tions vendors," explains Butler. "The NCSA's collaboration with UIUC's we will all have ATM protocol was designed to function at Computing and Communications local area networks, various rates, from 1.5 Mbps [mega­ Service Office, Department of Com­ and vBNS will con­ bits per second] all the way up to 9.6 puter Science, and NCSA industrial nect those." Gbps [gigabits per second] and be­ partner United Technologies. "We're yond without modifications. That's taking local-area ATM equipment a real change from a lot of the other and interconnecting it to examine technologies in the past. It should performance and functionality," make this migration [described states Butler. "United Technologies below] a lot easier." has given us an ATM switch to use in testing multimedia capabilities between workstations."

BY THOMAS KRAWCZYK Illustration by Loren Kirkwood

16 access Spring 1995 Networking conferences NCSA's Network Development Group: The Networking Development Group (left to right) Randy Butler, technical was able to demonstrate its expertise program manager; Paul Zawada; Von in HIPPI development and manage­ ment at Supercomputing '93 [see Welch; Jon Dugan; John Quinn ; Vijay access, Spring 1994, page 36]. "Our Rangarajan ; and Patrick Dorn (Photo by team was responsible for the HIPPI Thompson-McClellan) network used at that conference," says Butler. "It represented the Advancing distributed largest HIPPI network at the time­ computing at NCSA with 16 HIPPI switches and over 50 NCSA's role in the advancement of installed systems. We designed and unique capabilities through a distrib­ HIPPI technology shows that there is installed the network, worked with uted environment. Typically you don't more to distributed computing than all the exhibitors and vendors, have the resources you need at your developing fast wide-area networks supported it, and disassembled it own site, but if you had supercom­ that span the country. afterwards." puters at both ends of the network, "HIPPI is a gigabit network tech­ Again the Networking Develop­ you could link into machines special­ nology we've been installing and inte­ ment Group lent its expertise at ized for different types of work. It's a grating here for a couple of years," Supercomputing '94, through HIPPI combination of large datasets and the says Butler. "We have 14 nodes on and ATM network management specialization of machines that calls our HIPPI network, and it is now a support and by serving on network­ for better and better networks." _. production-class network-far more ing panels. The team also contributed reliable and available than a research to the network design and implemen­ Thomas Krawczyk is a freelance science network." tation for the Second International writer. NCSA's new SGI POWER CHAL­ World Wide Web Conference '94 in LENGE Array is also interconnected October at Chicago. by the HIPPI network. The first five CONVEX Exemplar HYPERnodes Pushing the edges are connected to the FDDI network. If they are to keep pace with the In the third quarter of 1995, they are growth in HPCC, Butler and his expected to support HIPPI, when all group have their work cut out for 8 HYPERnodes are online. The CM -5 them. is already connected to the HIPPI "Supercomputers have pushed the network. The NCSA HIPPI network development of high-speed network­ also connects to the BLANCA network ing because researchers are able to and is connected through BLANCA create so much data. They also want at 622 Mbps to the HIPPI network to take advantage of each machine's at Madison.

access Spring 1 995 1 7 new I o g y

World Wide Web servers at NCSA

n early 1993, NCSA released The number of requests for infor­ eight in December. NCSA will con­ NCSA Mosaic, considered by mation from the center's Web server tinue to add servers throughout the many to be the first useful Inter­ has increased continuously. As of coming months and, possibly, years. net browser.[1] It has proved this writing, the NCSA Web service Iunbelievably popular-today hun­ receives more than 500,000 requests The NCSA Web service dreds of thousands use it to access each weekday. During peak hours, architecture information over the Internet. the service gets 50,000 requests Addressing information At roughly the same time, NCSA per hour, which is roughly 1,000 Web servers find documents through started a World Wide Web server. per minute or over 30 requests per addresses called Uniform Resource As Mosaic grew in popularity, the second-for hours on end! [2, 3] Locators (URL) [4] that have the demands on NCSA's Web service This phenomenal load has present­ form: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ exploded. Meeting this demand has ed a significant technical challenge. filename.html. Part of the URL been a serious challenge for two No ordinary computer is designed to is a server's Internet Protocol (IP) NCSA Computing and Communica­ respond to 30 network requests per address (in this case, tions (C&C) teams-Information second for several hours at a time, www.ncsa.uiuc.edu). In order to Systems and Networks. The NCSA and not many computers can do this _OJ Information Systems Group pioneered at all. As the load has grown, indi­ 0 0 the technology of scalable information vidual computers used as servers 0 0 servers, an economically and cultur­ have struggled and, inevitably, failed 0 0 ally crucial area. under this unprecedented stress. This NCSA Mosaic opened the door and experience gave the two C&C teams helped millions of people look for and the opportunity to study how servers get information over the Internet. work under extreme pressure­ The center also pioneered the scal­ whether we wanted it or not. able server (information provider) Any single computer has an upper side of this technology. The Informa­ limit of Web traffic it can handle. tion Servers Team is leading the way Our load already exceeds the limit for widely used version of in investigating and developing new most computers. We quickly realized the Do ain Name Service (DNS). information server technology. With that we needed to use more than one We ee ed to have the name the explosive growth in requests for computer to meet the d mand. The ~"" ''"""" ~.""•csa.uiuc.edu refer to more information from our server, NCSA NCSA solution can b a an one computer, which was not has been forced to invent new tech­ other situations. possible with standard DNS software. nologies to keep up with demand. Before we COR use multiple serv­ So a new feature was added to the y problems had to be NCSA network name service: round­ NCSA Web service overcome· robin DNS. Whenever a computer The NCSA server offers i • Addre ing information-the asks the NCSA network name w.ncsa.uiuc.edu" address had service "What is the IP address for ~ E to map to multiple computers www.ncsa.uiuc.edu?" it receives one 5= • Balancing the load-requests had of several addresses, in a simple 5;0 to be apportioned among multiple rotation, rather than only one. [5] 5;8 <(0 servers (/)0 0 o_ • Distributing information-each Load balancing zN server needed all the information Round-robin DNS effectively makes "<:t (J') (J') available from the service the name www.ncsa.uiuc.edu a logi­ cal address that resolves to several We have solved these problems physical addresses. It also provides BY RoBERT McGRATH, by adding servers to keep up with load-balancing among the several demand. Starting with one server NANCY YEAGER, servers because the address of each in February 1994, we had four serv­ server is given out just as often as AND ADAM CAIN ers in May, six in September, and every other server.

1 8 access Spring 1 995 It turns out that this is a rather imperfect load balancing mechanism because other systems use name-to­ IP translations for a while rather than asking over and over for the Distribution File System same translation. Even with its shortcomings, round-robin DNS has (Andrew File System spread the load fairly evenly among Servers) NCSA's multiple servers.[8] In short, 100GB it has worked-so far.

Distributing information The NCSA Web service provides in­ formation from a tree of files contain­ ing HTML documents, images, audio files, and movies. In order to use multiple servers, each server must be able-one way or another-to retrieve all the documents. Otherwise NCSA would have several Web services, rather than a single one. Compound­ ing the problem is the large and changing set of information being served: tens of thousand of files amounting to many megabytes of storage with new files added daily. NCSA's scalable Web service includes a collection of independent servers , a One approach would be to repli­ document tree in a distributed file system (Andrew File System ), and a round­ cate all the information to be served on each server. Clearly it would be robin Domain Name Service. (Data supplied by Michelle Butler, NCSA c & C; Illustration by very difficult and expensive to main­ Marshall Greenberg) tain identical copies of thousands of files on four, eight, or 32 servers. A second approach would be to divide Other Web activities at NCSA the information among the servers. Some documents (notably the NCSA is a hub for research and development in information server technology What's New pages) are more popular including scientific information and images, online libraries, industrial applica­ than others. These high-demand tions, and community service. The projects are different, but they all share the items present a serious challenge need to break new ground in information services. because the server (or servers) that C&C teams are currently involved in the URN (Uniform Resource Name) offers the most popular information project that is establishing guidelines for unique document tags and locator will often be overloaded, while the information. They are also investigating digital commerce security issues, such other servers will not be able to help. as user authentication, digital signatures, and encryption as well as document access control. (Both will be covered in future issues of access. ) This rather defeats the purpose of Below are URLs and article references for some recent C&C collaborative adding extra servers. The solution projects covered in this and previous issues of access. to this problem is to cache a copy of the most used information on each CCNet: see article on page 24. of the servers. We solved the problem of distrib­ Astronomy Digital Image Library URL: http://imagelib.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ uting information by putting the imagelib.html document tree in the center's distrib­ uted file system, the Andrew File The Daily Planet URL: http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu System (AFS) from Transarc Corpo­ ration. [6, 7] Digital Library Initiative research: see article on pages 6-7 AFS provides a single consistent SHTTP (secure servers) standard URL: http://www.commerce.net/informationl view of the file system to each Web standards/drafts/shttp.txt server, so that each server sees ex­ actly the same documents. This effec­ tively replicates the whole document tree and because AFS caches files on the local disk, the most popular docu­ ments are generally available on local disk on each server.

WWW servers continued on page 21

access Spring 1 995 1 9 NCSA MosAic AwARDS forming the Internet into a workable web connecting data users and NCSA Mosaic has been recognized sources, instead of an intimidating throughout business, industry, and domain of nerds." NCSA Mosaic academia as an award-winning prod­ shares the honor for 1994 with the uct, and. the list keeps growing. Larry Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Jackson, NCSA Mosaic technical Olds Aurora, and Wonderbra. manager, said at one recent awards A panel of Apple Internet users ceremony: "Outside groups don't per­ from the Advanced Technology Group ceive the boundaries between client, of Apple Computer Inc. in Cupertino, server, Web, protocols, user interface. CA, awarded NCSA a Cool Tools They tend to lump them all together. Award for NCSA Mosaic for the Mac. Accordingly, I expect this is not specifically a 'software developer's' The Berkeley Macintosh User's award, but an award to anyone con­ Group (BMUG)-the largest of the nected with the creation of the total Mac Users Groups, with about 12,000 package the user encounters." members-awarded NCSA and UIUC one of their Fall1994 Choice Prod­ Industry Week's (December 19, 1994 Most Valuable Product Award from uct awards for NCSA Mosaic at the 1994) Technology of the Year PC Computing and 1994 PC Magazine 1994 Macworld convention in Boston. Award-one of six awarded this Technical Excellence Award. year-was bestowed on NCSA Mosaic The December 1994 issue of Unix in a ceremony at the center on Febru­ Review magazine, distributed in ary 2, 1995. Charles Day, editor-in­ advance at COMDEX, gave NCSA for Outstanding Multimedia chief, made the presentation. (See Mosaic the Networking Award in Internet Utility to NCSA Mosaic in page 21. ) their 1994 Outstanding Product August 1994. The Dvorak PC Tele­ Awards for a UNIX application. Information Week (December 19, communications Excellence Awards 1994) ranked NCSA Mosaic at the PC magazine (a Ziff-Davis publica­ are presented by Dvorak and Hayes top of its list of the Ten Most tion) chose NCSA Mosaic for the 1994 Microcomputer Products to "pioneers Important Products of 1994. PC Magazine Technical Excel­ whose vision and commitment to tele­ NCSA Mosaic placed above Microsoft lence award in the Communications communications and online activities Windows NT, Apple Power Macintosh, Software category. The award was have helped increase the vibrant, ex­ Lotus Network Notes, and Fore presented by Rick Ayre, executive panding network of ideas and infor­ Systems' ForeRunner. editor, and Nick Starn, technical mation that exists today." director for hardware at PC Maga­ The December 12, 1994, issue of NCSA Mosaic was awarded the zine Labs, during COMDEX. Fortune magazine lists NCSA Mosaic 1994 MacU ser-ZiffNet/Mac Share­ as one of the publication's Products NCSA Mosaic won a Most ware Award for Telecommunications of the Year: "This software is trans- Valuable Product Award from during the Third Annual MacUser/ PC Computing Ziff-Davis Interactive Shareware magazine (a Ziff­ Awards ceremony at the August Davis publication) 1994 Macworld Expo in Boston. in November 1994. Info World magazine's editors The award-for named NCSA Mosaic the 1993 Prod­ the Most Valuable uct of the Year in Bob Metcalfe's Product in the Industry Achievement Award cat­ Communications/ egory [see access, Summer 1994, Network group, page 26]. "Our editors' Product of Online Services the Year Awards recognize superior category-was achievement in 11 categories of per­ given in Las Vegas sonal computer hardware, software, at the annual and networking products. Coming as COMDEX conven­ it does from men and women with a tion. thorough, objective understanding John Dvorak and of personal computer and networking Dennis Hayes pre­ technologies, your award represents NCSA Mosaic wins lnfoWorld's 1993 Product of the Year Award , sented the 1994 a unique mark of excellence for your 1994 MacUser-ZiffNet/Shareware Award , and 1994 Dvorak PC Dvorak PC Tele­ very distinguished product," states Editor-in-Chief Stewart Alsop. Telecommunications Excellence Award for Outstanding Multimedia communications Excellence Award Internet Utility (left to right). (Photos by Thompson-McClellan) WWW servers continued from page 19

NCSA's multiple Web servers do not have any knowledge of each other. This independence allows NCSA to use a variety of hardware as servers. Almost any system that can be an AFS client can be made into an NCSA Web server in under an hour. The round-robin approach could be made to work with any efficient dis­ tributed file system. Much research remains to learn how well distributed file systems in general (and AFS in particular) work with large files, such as images or movies, and how well they will work in the long run. It may not be possible to precisely replicate our solution everywhere, but the basic idea should be widely applicable.

References and URLs "You're helping to make our lives better ... You're helping us get around on that 1. NCSA Mosaic Home Page. URL: http:// [information] highway," said Charles Day, editor-in-chief of Industry Week, as he www.ncsa. uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/ Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html presented the publication's Technology of the Year Award (1994) to NCSA Mosaic. 2. Robert McGrath, "What We Do and Accepting were (left to right) Terry Mclaren, Larry Jackson, Briand Sanderson, Don't Know About the Load on the [Day], Tom Redman, and Dave Thompson of NCSA's Software Development NCSA WWW Server." NCSA Colloquium (September 28, 1994). Group. (Photo by Tony Baylis, NCSA Media Technology Resources) URL: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ InformationServers/Colloquia/ NCSA Mosaic Tr:ophy Case: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Soft­ 28.Sep.94/Begin.html ware/Mosaic/ Awards/MosaicAwards.html 3. Mosaic Stats. URL: http:// www .ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Presentations / Stats/WebServer.html 4. Tim Berners-Lee, "Uniform Resource ITFC Locators (URL): A Syntax for the Expression of Access Information of The Internet Technologies Federal (NRC), National Security Adminis­ Objects on the Network." URI Working Consortium (ITFC) brings together tration (NSA), and National Science Group (21 March 1994). URL: http:// a group of federal agencies with an Foundation (NSF). info.cern.ch/hypertext!WWWI Address­ interest in the Internet, information The primary focus for NCSA is ing/URL/url-spec. txt tools, and NCSA. to provide the participating agencies 5. Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu, DNS The goals of the ITFC are to assist with the support and technical assis­ and BIND in a Nutshell. O'Reilly & federal agencies in reinventing their tance they need to solve problems of Associates, 1992. internal operations and information information dissemination and com­ 6. M. Satayanarayanan, "Scalable, Secure, dissemination, provide a forum for munication to enhance technology and Highly Available Distributed File technology transfer, help provide sharing. The work includes providing Access." IEEE Computer 23, no. 5 (May resources for continued NCSA Mosaic a WWW server with information 1990). development, and give members the specific to the consortium members; 7. NCSA AFS Users Guide version 2.1 chance for direct input to NCSA training; collaborating on small (September 1994). URL: http:// developers. useful software applications using www .ncsa. uiuc.edu/Pubs/ Participating agencies are: Central the CCI (common client interface); NCSASysDir.html Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense technology transfer; and watching 8. Eric Katz, Michelle Butler, and Robert Technology Information Center the net for new, cool, and useful McGrath, "A Scalable HTTP Server: The (DTIC), General Services Administra­ developments the agencies might NCSA Prototype." First International tion (GSA), National Institute of apply to their WWW pages. Conference on the World Wide Web, Standards and Technology (NIST), 1994. URL: http:/ www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ National Library of Medicine (NLM), InformationServers/Conferences/ National Oceanographic and Atmo­ CERNwww94/www94.ncsa.html .6. spheric Administration (NOAA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission Robert McGrath, Nancy Yeager, and Adam Cain are members of the Computing and Communications Group.

access Spring 1995 21 CRAZY ABOUT YOU, KID: john Ziebarth makes plans for NCSA's Education and Outreach Program

ohn Ziebarth has been around Training the educator has become extends NCSA's outreach to K-12 NCSA for a few months. In a priority of the NCSA Education institutions to learn how an HPCC fact, he recently moved to his and Outreach Group. Training teach­ center can partner with other permanent office just three ers, keeping in contact with them, oganizations to support teachers Jdoors west of mine. We had met upon making sure they have access to and educational improvement. his summer arrival at NCSA, but the latest technology-as well as an > The Resource for Science Educa­ prior to this interview contact was expert to consult with-has proven tion (RSE) Program, also funded limited. beneficial and far-reaching. The next by EHR, brings visiting educators Ziebarth's reputation preceded great "frontier" will be the training of to NCSA to interact with staff and him. I knew he was lauded as an edu­ teacher educators so that eventually scientists and to utilize testbed cation and computer guru from the every new teacher will be prepared environments that NCSA helps University of Alabama in Huntsville, to use technology in the classroom. to establish. and his arrival was eagerly antici­ "The constant changes in technol­ > SuperQuest is a national computa­ pated by the NCSA education staff. ogy will cause changes in education," tional science competition for As I prepared for our interview, I says Ziebarth. "It's NCSA's job to secondary students and teachers anticipated hearing Ziebarth's savvy stay involved and in-step with these designed to change high-school strategies and precise plans concern­ changes and to adapt them to the science and mathematics curricula ing his vision for the Education and education arena." by providing the resources and Outreach Program. I wasn't disap­ Currently there are five NSF­ training necessary to stimulate pointed. funded programs being administered the computational exploration of at NCSA. Plans are to pursue fund­ science [see access, Fall1995, page Computation here to stay ing for the continuation of current 17]. Ziebarth makes it very clear where programs and the addition of new > The Networking Infrastructure for he stands on technology and educa­ programs. Education (NIE) program, funded tion: it's not a fad. He explains that by EHR, provides a testbed for theory and experimentation have > The Education Mfiliates Program deploying a variety of high-speed been the mainstays of science and (EA), funded by NSF's Education network technologies in rural and education research, but computation and Human Resources (EHR), suburban environments. NCSA is now on equal ground. Each educational level is addressed in Ziebarth's plans. Graduate-level education has been using high-perfor­ mance computing and doing computa­ tional science as a matter of course for well over eight years. Undergrad­ uates are novices in this means of research; computational science is just beginning to play a part in high school and even middle schools.

BY pAULETTE SANCKEN

22 access Spring 1995 will evaluate the impact of infra­ Businesses and communities, like structure needs in networking, John Ziebarth profile educators, need good online content teacher enhancement, curriculum and a reason to be connected. "This change, and ongoing support for connection needs to be affordable these activities. -+ Graduated from Rantoul Township and justifiable," Ziebarth reminds us. High School, Rantoul, IL > The ChernViz program develops What goes on in this area in the next curriculum materials for teachers -+Received bachelor's degree in several years will dictate whether to cover modern atomic theory physics and math, and master's being a stop on the superhighway is and introduces students to atomic degree in math from Eastern profitable or not. If it isn't profit­ bonding and molecular orbital Illinois University able-for both the consumer and the theory [see access, Spring 1994, business-it won't last. "We can help page 22]. -+ Completed doctorate in aerospace educate the community and industry engineering with an emphasis in to make sure what they contribute to Well connected computational fluid dynamics at the Internet is needed, wanted, and Ziebarth believes that wholesale Mississippi State University has longevity," Ziebarth explains. access to technology by schools, Recently developed NCSA out­ -+Worked for NASA, Rockwell Inter­ businesses, and communities is only national, Colorado State Univer­ reach projects include: a matter of time and money. The sity, Argonne National Lab, and > Illinois Learning Mosaic (ILM)­ content and quality of what is access­ University of Alabama, Huntsville an online resource for Illinois edu­ ed is his real concern. cators, parents, and students that "This is an area where NCSA needs -+Worked most recently at the will provide information about to focus. What is the benefit of having University of Alabama in Hunts­ access to technology-driven pro­ this connectivity? How does educa­ ville and with the Alabama grams and courses from K-Ph.D. tional information get there? How is Supercomputing Center, where he Ultimately every school in Illinois it evaluated? Does it get evaluated? developed the Alabama Precollege will be on the network and in the Supercomputing Program (APSP), How does this information get dis­ ILM database. an opportunity for high-school > seminated?" asks Ziebarth. Answers students to learn about computa­ CCNet-a collaboration between to these questions will help drive the tional science and supercomputing. NCSA and the Champaign County new direction in educational outreach. The APSP was adopted by the Chamber of Commerce designed Department of Energy for its to steer the county onto the global The engagement Adventures in Supercomputing electronic superhighway. Areas Getting communities and businesses Program and by NASA as its being addressed are agribusiness, involved in technology is the other Explorations in Supercomputing community and government re­ aspect of the Education and Outreach Program sources and libraries, education, Group. The stakes are high to be in health care, small business, and -+ Acted as Educational Chair for the first phalanx of "those that are Geographic Information Networks Supercomputing '94 connected" to the Internet. Although [see access, Fall1994, page 24]. many are rushing to get on the Infor­ -+ Elected Educational Chair for mation Superhighway, what's the big Supercomputing '95 Under Ziebarth's direction, NCSA hurry? Businesses may liken getting will continue to be an information connected to buying a new car -+ Recently married Beth Ann and training resource for current model-maybe it's best to wait a Bucher, a chemistry teacher outreach participants, while adding few years and let them get the bugs at Centennial High School, new dimensions and target groups worked out before buying. Yet wait­ Champaign, IL to the program. ing may lead to repercussions down -+ Enjoys golf and snow skiing the line. Multiplication in order Ziebarth is also looking to double the number of full-time staff in his area. Team leaders will head up three major spheres ofinterest: (1) educa­ tional research, (2) science and cur­ riculum issues, and (3) networking and outreach. Newcomers to this group will find a leader who is dedicated to advanc­ ing computational technology from the classroom to the boardroom. Those that come into contact with him through outreach efforts will discover a well-informed, dedicated educator. _.

Paulette Sancken is a public information specialist in the Publications Group.

John Ziebarth (Photos by Thompson-McClellan) access Spring 1995 23 NSF GRANT NETWORKS ILLINOIS SCHOOLS

The UIUC is distributing ten grants viding their experience in computer has a number of task forces focused totalling approximately $132,000 to networking to develop networking on the uses of the network in the local school districts and educational recommendations for the schools community. The CCNet Education organizations to facilitate the cre­ involved in the project. task force is led by the superinten­ ation and use oftelecommunications "Schools participating in the dents ofthe Champaign and Urbana networks in grades K-12. The money project," says Lathrop, "will help districts. The local superintendents will also be used for curriculum achieve NIE's goals for creating and their staff have been collaborat­ development and teacher training. a testbed networked educational ing with several UIUC units and The award is provided from a one­ community throughout 1995." CCNet to prototype networking solu­ year, $0.5 million grant received from Lathrop says that the NSF grant tions. This experience and foundation the National Science Foundation by came about in part because NCSA will be used for many of the school a collaboration of university units: has studied the role of high-perfor­ connections in the NIE .project. NCSA, the College of Education, and mance computing and communica­ the Department of Computer Science. tions in K-12 education since 1990. Schools involved The funding comes from NSF's Net­ A series of workshops "generated Grant recipients, selected from writ­ working Infrastructure for Education momentum for the introduction of ten proposals, are the Champaign (NIE) program. high-performance networking, com­ School District, including Bottenfield putational science, and visualization Elementary, Centennial High School, NCSA's role into local and regional schools." Central High School, Columbia "We have a special interest in science In addition to training teachers, Elementary, South Side Elementary, and mathematics education," says NCSA has made its facilities avail­ and Westview Elementary; Urbana Scott Lathrop, NCSA project coordi­ able as a "living laboratory" for School District, including Wiley nator. "We see this program as a community teachers to instruct Elementary, Leal Elementary, and collaborative effort to bridge the gap their students. Urbana Jr. High School; Charleston between laboratory science and class­ School District, including Carl Sand­ room education to enable students to CCNet provides foundation burg Elementary and Charleston Jr. learn and perform science with the Champaign County Network (CCNet) High School; Danville High School; same tools used by researchers." was developed by the Champaign Discovery Place, Champaign (science The faculty from the College of County Chamber of Commerce to museum for children); Mahomet­ Education bring many years of expe­ catalyze the creation of a telecommu­ Seymour Combined School District; rience in curriculum development nications infrastructure with high­ Springfield District; Teutopolis High and teacher training to benefit this speed networking connections School; Unit Seven Schools in Tolono; project. The Department of Computer throughout Champaign County [see and University Laboratory High Science faculty and students are pro- access, Fall 1994, page 24]. CCNet School. •

CCNET EXPANDS

Three new Champaign County Network (CCNet) sites have been added to the system, Alaina Kanfer of NCSA's Educational Outreach Team recently announced. The Champaign-Urbana N ews Gazette's Urbana office and Champaign's Central and Centennial High Schools now receive data at high speed from the Internet via TV cable with a telephone return path. The Champaign-Urbana Convention and Visitors Bureau is slated to be connected into CCNet by April1995. Local exhibits may be accessed from the WWW at either of the URLs given below. •

Local exhibits: http://www.prairienet.org/ippages.html (Prairienet) http://www.prairienet.org/SiliconPrairie/info_hwy/w3servers.html (CCNet)

24 access Spring 1 995 NCSA holds partner user meeting

he first Industrial Partner User Meeting was so well re­ ceived that plans are already underway for a second meeting. Thirty participants from NCSA's Industrial Partners Program attended a day-long session at the Beckman Institute in November 1994 to pre­ pare for hardware changes at the cen­ ter [see access, Fall1994, pages 4-7]. "The main focus of the meeting," said Joe Blackmon, program manager of NCSA's Industrial Partner Pro­ gram, "was how NCSA can help industrial partner computational users transition from the CRAY Y-MP and the CONVEX C3880 sys­ tems to the new high-performance Convex representative Scott Free Chemical Engineering Break-Out Session discus­ systems-the SGI POWER CHAL­ and SGI representative J eff McDonald sants were (left to right) Ken Bishop (University of LENGE and CONVEX Exemplar­ talked about the benefits and fea­ Kansas); Willis Bell (Eli Lilly); Jay Alameda (leader and what applications will be tures of their respective machines. available on these machines." The compatibility of popular third­ of NCSA's Chem ical Engineering Applications NCSA Director Larry Smarr party applications on the Exemplar Group), session leader; Haruna Cofer (NCSA); addressed the group on the direction and the CHALLENGE was stressed. and Linda Wh ite (Eli Lilly ). (Photo by Tony Baylis, of NCSA's scalable metacomputing Mter lunch, break-out sessions on environment. He wants the center's a variety of topics were offered. Ses­ NCSA Media Technology Re sources) Industrial Partners to "get on the sion topics and their leaders were as learning curve early" as NCSA transi­ follows: computational fluid dynam­ tions to a scalable microprocessor ics, Danesh Tafti; finite element The user meeting was held in metacomputer. Moving into NCSA's analysis, Fouad Ahmad; chemistry, conjunction with the second Indus­ new environment will be more satis­ Balaji Veeraraghavan; molecular trial Partner Advisory Council that factory for users, Smarr pointed out dynamics, Shankar Subramaniam; convened on the following day. The as he stated that every job running on chemical engineering, Jay Alameda; major item passed from the user a CRAY Y-MP system would "fit into business computing, Michael Welge; meeting to the advisory council was the memory of one processor on the digital libraries, Bruce Schatz; and a discussion on how the partners and SGI POWER CHALLENGE." information systems, Larry Jackson. NCSA could work together to commu­ Aspects of transitioning partner The meeting concluded with a nicate to software vendors about applications to the new systems, discussion on NCSA's industrial applications and flexible licensing timelines for doing so, and system user environment. The group recom­ agreements. administration issues were intro­ mended holding another meeting the NCSA's Corporate Officer J ohn duced by Lex Lane, associate director next year. Stevenson said, "I am especially ofNCSA's User Services. pleased with the partner participa­ John Towns, chair ofNCSA's tion and the results of the meeting. Computer Policy Committee, The Tribune Co. becomes It is important that we continue to described the Exemplar and the receive this type of partner input, CHALLENGE in terms oftheir NCSA's 12th industrial and hopefully we can have another software environments and vendor partner ... meeting in 1995." .A participation. Read all about it in the next iss ue of access. Fran Bond, editor of access, is a member of the Publications Group. BY FRAN BOND

access S pring 1 9 9 5 25 center activ t es

N ATIONAL A CADEMY OF E NGINEERING INDUCTS S MARR

NCSA Director Larry tional Conference on Smarr was inducted as a System Sciences in the member of the prestigious biotechnology systems National Academy of Engi­ track. Her collaborators neering (NAE) for "leader­ are Herbert Edelsbrunner ship in high-performance (UIUC computer science computing and communica­ professor), Mike Facello tions" in February. (SDG), and Jie Liang "I am thrilled with (Applications Group). the election," Smarr said. NCSA publications won "However, I think it is sym­ three awards in the 22nd bolically honoring all of Annual Chicago Technical those who have worked so Publications, Art, and hard to create the evolving Online Communication information infrastructure Rich Kendall , Jim Long , and Scott Coyle (left to right) , former Gray Competition of the Society in America and the world." Research Inc. onsite representatives at NCSA to maintain the for Technical Communica­ Election to the National machines, were honorees at a farewell reception. Altogether, their time tion (STC), Chicago divi­ Academy of Engineering is at NCSA totaled 17 years. Long remains at NCSA in the Computing sion. among the highest profes­ access won second place sional distinctions in engi­ and Communications Group. (Photo by Tony Bayl is, NCSA Media Technology in the art competition for neering, honoring those Resources) magazine design (Fall1993, who have made important Spring and Summer 1994). contributions to engineer­ Collaborating recipients ing theory and practice MILESTONES were Linda Jackson, and demonstrated unusual designer; Fran Bond, accomplishment in pioneer­ editor; and Melissa ing new technologies. Honor Johnson, managing edi­ Smarr is one of 77 selected NCSA research scientist tor. For cover design, the for membership this year. Eric Jakobsson, biophysi­ Summer 1994 issue placed He was nominated by the cist in the Applications third. Winners were John NAE Section 5, Computer Group, recently was elected Havlik, concept and illus­ Science and Engineering. a Fellow in the American tration, and Bond, concept Smarr, a relativistic Physical Society. "For the and research. "Focus on astrophysicist, is widely elucidation of ion transport Fractals," designed by recognized as one of the through biological mem­ Jackson, took third prize in principle catalysts in mak­ branes by computer model­ the poster category. Image ing supercomputing power ing of polypeptide, ion, and creation was by Rober t available to academic water motions" is the cita­ Panoff, NCSA senior researchers. In 1984 he tion on his induction. research scientist, and helped convince the U.S. Michael South, former Congress to fund the pro­ NSF site intern at NCSA. gram that created the Na­ Bond was invited to tional Science Foundation's judge selected entries in supercomputing centers, the publications category. one ofwhich is NCSA. He .... was also influential in the development of a national network to connect the centers' processing power

26 a c cess Spring 199 5 to remote university and a number of workshops industrial users. offered through NCSA's Before centers like Education and Outreach NCSA were established, Program and has partici­ supercomputers were pated in the networking of almost completely unavail­ Urbana public schools. able to the academic com­ Out of thousands of munity. In the 1970s and applicants, 60 American early 1980s, Smarr traveled teachers from the U.S. and abroad or worked under abroad were chosen to clearance in national labo­ represent 12 categories. Of ratories to run his research that 60, 36 finalists-three problems on supercomput­ in each category-were ers. flown to Washington with Smarr, 46, joined the their spouses. During UIUC faculty in 1979 after National Education Week, conducting postdoctoral they were treated like research at Princeton, royalty as primary guests Yale, and Cambridge Uni­ of Disney. versities, and as a Junior "The most spectacular Fellow at Harvard Univer­ part of this honor was sity. He holds a doctorate meeting the 35 teachers," in physics from the Univer­ says Vancil. "I have 35 new sity of Texas at Austin, brothers and sisters in the master's degrees in physics profession." She says the from Stanford University group quickly bonded and and the University of "appreciated each other's Missouri, and a bachelor's uniqueness." While in in physics from Missouri. the nation's capitol, the Smarr is a Fellow of the group chose one person to American Physical Society represent all teachers for and the American Academy the "Walt Disney Salutes of Arts and Sciences. In the American Teacher" 1990 he received the promotional campaign, Franklin Institute's Delmer which is sponsored by the S. Fahrney Medal for Disney TV Channel and Leadership in Science and Campbell Soup. Technology. With William As part of the process, Kaufmann III, he co­ videos of 60 teachers authored Supercomputing selected in the first round and the Transformation were produced by Disney. of Science, published in Teachers were interviewed 1993 by Scientific Ameri­ and filmed in their local can Library. .A schools along with stu­ dents, parents, and school administrators. These brief videos (six and one­ D ISNEY HONORS half minutes) are airing throughout the school year LOCAL TEACHER on the Disney Channel. Vancil's video will be shown "Walt Disney Salutes in the fall. Showings of the At the beginning of the year, NCSA's last vector processing American Teacher Awards" awards ceremony continue machines were removed from service. The CRAY-2 (top) honored Marcy Vancil, through this year. Urbana kindergarten An Educational Advi­ and the GRAY Y-MP systems (center) were taken apart and and first grade teacher sory Committee, selected removed from the Machine Room in the Advanced Comput­ at Flossie Wiley School, from 20 professional ing Building (bottom). (Photos by To ny Baylis and Lynn Gephart , in Washington, DC. organizations in education, NCSA Media Technology Resou rces) Recognized as a teacher chose the winners. .A who represents the best in her profession, Vancil was one of three finalists in the Early Childhood Category. She has been involved in

access Spring 1995 27 THE SECOND wwwco Mosaic a

"[The Web] is more than just a technology and intellectual network; it is a way to bring people together from around the world," said Tony Rutkowski of the Internet Society as more than 1,300 worldwide Web/ NCSA Mosaic users convened in Chicago last October to prove his point. Almost as many wanna-be attendees made up the conference waiting list as those who got in.

Enthusiasm and optimism filled the air at the Second International World Wide Web Conference where discus­ sants lingered on after presentations and where Birds of a Feather ses­ sions lasted well into the evenings. By conference end, plans were underway for meetings into 1996.

This page, top to bottom: Poster session (Photo by Fran Bond); Grand reception (Photo by Mitch Kutzko); Conference session (Kutzko); NCSA Director Larry Smarr, keynote speaker (Photo by Tony Baylis); Mary Laplante, executive director of SGML Open , chairs Product Announcements Session (Bond)

28 access Sprin g 1 9 95 INTERNATIONAL ~FERENCE '94 1d the Web

Attendees projected an attempted registration of 3,000 to 4,000 partici­ pants for the third meeting scheduled for April10- 14, 1995 in Darmstadt, Germany. (Actual registration is limited.) Future locales are set for Boston, MA (fall1995) and Paris, France (spring 1996). Regional conferences-in Australia, for example-are also planned.

Extrapolating from the current rate of growth on the Net, Rutkowski predicted there would be 100 million global users by the year 2000. If so, many more Web conferences and other spin-offs are guaranteed!

For information about the third WWW conference, see the URL below. •

by Fran Bond, editor of access

This page, top to bottom: Vendor Exhibit (Photo by Linda Jackson); Conference T-shirt (Jackson); Internet Access Room (Jackson); Registration (Kutzko); Ira "T H E A B I L1 TY TO TAM E T H E OCEANS Goldstein, vice president of the Open Software Foundation Research OF INFORMATION AND MAKE THEM Institute and conference co-chair (Kutzko) NAVIGABLE TO THE LAYMAN IS THE

REAL BENEFIT OF MOSAIC .... Third International WWW Conference information: FEW TOOLS TODAY DO IT BETTER." bttp://www.igd.fhg.de/www95.html -Unix Review

acc ess Spri n g 199 5 29 NCSAATG7 Computing and Communi­ cations; and John Ziebarth, C ONFERENCE IN NCSA associate director B ELGIUM for Education and Out­ reach. "This was NCSA's debut NCSA's exhibit was in Europe," says Charlie supported by Silicon Catlett, NCSA associate Graphics, Inc., an NCSA director of Computing and strategic technology part­ Communications, NCSA's ner, and AT&T, an NCSA exhibit lead at the G7 Exhi­ industrial partner. A bition Event in Brussels, Belgium, February 25-26. The Event, designed VROOM ONLINE to show the benefits and capabilities of the Informa­ tion Revolution in today's VROOM, a virtual reality room using CAVE (Cave global society, was held Automatic Virtual Envi­ concurrent with the G7 U.S. Vice President AI Gore, Jr. demonstrating NCSA Mosaic ronment) facilities, is now Ministerial Conference on the World Wide Web to Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission , on the Information Society. available for viewing in at the G7 "The Information Society" exhibition . Standing left The European Commission NCSA Mosaic. (EC), chaired by President to right are Wh ite House aide David Lytel , NCSA Associate All the VROOM Jacques Santer, was host. exhibits shown at Director Charl ie Catlett, Vice President Gore, President The conference was at­ SIGGRAPH 94 [see Santer, and NIIT Executive Director Troy Eid. (Photo courtesy tended by ministerial rep­ access, Summer 1994, pp. 3-14, 26] are now online of G7 Conference) resentatives from the G7 and European Union coun­ at the URL below. tries who are responsibile VROOM: http:// for telecommunications and www .ncsa. uiuc.edu/EVL/ information technology. docs/VROOMIHTMU Among the topics for OTHER/HomePage.html discussion was the develop­ ment of the Global Informa­ tion Infrastructure. The Event complemented the N CSA ANIMATIONS ON conference's content by showcasing technology's PBS BY LYNN GEPHART, advantages to society. USER SERVICES NCSA was one of 15 U.S. organizations invited Several NCSA animations to exhibit information tech­ were featured in episodes nology. U.S. Secretary of of Future Quest, a Public Commerce Ronald Brown Broadcasting System led the U.S. delegation, and (PBS) science educational Vice President Al Gore gave series that premiered in Still from "A Short Cut Home" created by Tony Rubey, the keynote address. the fall of 1994 and contin­ former NCSA visiting artist. Rubey's video was featured in NCSA's role at The ued through March 1995. Event demonstrated NCSA the "Giobonet" episode of Future Quest aired on PBS. It also Future Quest topics Mosaic as a window into included time travel, robot­ appears in "NCSA Mosaic/Gli mpse of the Future," an NCSA­ the Global Information ics, virtual reality, genetic produced video. (Courtesy of NCSA Media Technology Resou rces) Infrastructure. Several engineering, and cybernet­ NCSA videos were shown ics. Each episode integrated as well. clips from classic science Representing NCSA fiction films and television along with Catlett were shows to compare fictional Lex Lane, NCSA associate visions of the future with director for User Services; scientific realities. Roy Campbell, NCSA Shows featuring NCSA research scientist and footage were "Globonet" professor in UIUC Depart­ and "Doomsday." A ment of Computer Science; Tom Fischer, NCSA com­ puting utilities analyst in

30 access Spring 1995 Electrical fields continued from page 15 Antibodies continued from page 10 BIOLOGICAL IMAGING Rational design, he says, "will WORKSHOP Developing an interactive constitute genuine protein engineer­ environment ing rather than where we stand now, These applications are only the start, which is often so unpredictable that The Second Workshop on Advanced insists Johnson. "We are now bring­ is has been referred to as 'protein Computing for Biological Imaging ing together geometrical modeling, terrorism'." will be held April28-29, 1995, at the Beckman Institute. numerical analysis, large-scale com­ Understanding how a protein's The purpose of the workshop is puting, and scientific visualization structure influences its actions is es­ to provide a forum for discussion to develop a 'computational steering sential for developing immunotoxins, of integrating imaging modalities package' that will allow users to biosensors, and in industrial applica­ and applications used in biological design bioelectric devices and mea­ tions such as bacterial organisms research with advanced computing sure their effectiveness in an interac­ genetically altered to degrade oil systems. The goal of the workshop tive graphical environment." spills. Who knows? It may even help is to bring together researchers Using interactive graphical input biologists beat Mother Nature in and developers for an exchange devices, engineers will be able to curing the common cold. of applications, techniques, and design biomedical devices, place them technologies. Hosts are the Beckman Institute directly into the computer model, and NOTE: Papers based on this research and NCSA. Bridget Carragher automatically change parameters and have appeared in the following journals. (Beckman Institute) and Clinton boundary conditions as well as the R. E. Kozack, M. J. D'Mello, and Potter (NCSA) are organizing the level of mesh discretization needed S. Subramaniam. "Computer modeling workshop. for an accurate finite element solu­ of electrostatic steering and orientational Workshop attendance is limited tion. Johnson says that Utah's com­ effects in antibody-antigen association." to 50 participants to foster a proper putational steering package could Biophys. J. (in press). environment for discussion. Dead­ be adapted for use in other areas of M. Holst, R. E. Kozack, F. Saied, and line for registration was March 1, research as well. S. Subramaniam. 1994. "Treatment of 1995. electrostatic effects in proteins: Multi­ For further information, contact Judy Jones, ACBI coordinator, Working in NCSA's grid-based Newton iterative method for by phone (217) 244-5582 or by environment solution of the full nonlinear Poisson­ electronic mail [email protected] "The POWER CHALLENGE coupled Boltzmann equation." Proteins: Structure, (Internet). with the mass storage system facili­ Function, and Genetics 18(3): 231-245. ties at NCSA has been an invaluable M. Holst, R. E. Kozack, F. Saied, http://kepler.ncsa.uiuc.edu:6666 resource for our large-scale simula­ S. Subramaniam. 1994. "Protein electro­ tions," says Johnson. "Otherwise it statics: Rapid multigrid-based Newton would have been extremely difficult, algorithm for solution of the full nonlinear if not impossible, for us to conduct Poisson-Boltzmann equation." J . Biomol. our research in such a timely fashion. Struct. Dyn. 11(6): 1437-1445. SGI TRAINING DATES The large memory, disk space, and S. P. Slagle, R. E. Kozack, and multiprocessing capabilities of the S. Subramaniam. 1994. "Role of electro­ POWER CHALLENGE has given us statics in antibody-antigen association: Monthly training dates have been the opportunity to explore complex anti-hen egg lysozyme/lysozyme complex announced for NCSA's new SGI defibrillation scenarios that would (HyHEL-5HEL)." J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. POWER CHALLENGE system. have been impossible with standard 12:439-456. Session dates, scheduled now workstation facilities. The payoff R. E. Kozack and S. Subramaniam. through June, are available at the from these simulations is that engi­ 1993. "Brownian dynamics simulations of URL below. neers are now designing the next molecular recognition in an antibody-anti­ For further information, academic generation of implantable devices gen system." Protein Science 2:915-926. users contact Deanna Spivey at based on the results from these com­ .... (2 17) 244-1996 or ncsa­ plex simulations. NCSA's POWER [email protected] (Internet). CHALLENGE provides us with a tool Holly Korab is a science writer in the Industrial partner representatives, that allows us to explore a wide vari­ Publications Group. contact your representative. ety of designs to hone in on the most NOTE: All dates are subject to promising ones." change. Registration is required at least 10 days before a workshop. A NOTE: Work on the interactive steer­ cost-recovery fee may apply to some ing system was recently presented by sessions. .A Johnson during a plenary talk at Supercomputing '94. A http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Generall Holly Korab is a science writer in the Tralning/cal_complete.html Publications Group.

access Spring 1995 31 GuiDES TO NET NAVIGATION

the various Mosaic icons and file that helps you quickly find what you types you encounter. This jam-packed are looking for. Liberal use of illus­ chapter also introduces the HyperText trations and screen displays help Markup Language (HTML) and takes make the book less intimidating you through setting up a home page. than it could have been. The fifth and final chapter ("site see­ ing") shows you some Web displays Similarities, differences that the author likes. Both books cover similar territory, al­ Visually this book has an open though they are organized differently. look, making it easy to read. Scat­ Dougherty and Koman, on average, tered throughout are hot tip boxes, provide more details on each topic screen displays, and icons that hold than does Branwyn, and they also o into just about any book­ your attention from page to page. give a nice history of the development store these days and you are of Mosaic. Their style is straightfor­ G sure to find a section of books A h a ndbook plus software ward, and their instructions are clear. dedicated to the Internet, the World Among the latest offerings from Branwyn's volume is lighter in tone, Wide Web (WWW), online subscrip­ pioneering O'Reilly & Associates which some might find more inviting. tion services, and NCSA Mosaic. The Inc. is The Mosaic Handbook for the Both books reference their choices can be overwhelming. To help Macintosh by Dale Dougherty and publisher's WWW services-the you make your selection, two new Richard Koman. Exhibited at the Ventana Visitors Center from Macintosh-based books are reviewed Second WWW Conference in October Ventana Press and the Global Net­ here. 1994, this volume comes bundled work Navigator (GNN) from O'Reilly. with a disk containing Enhanced These references are not intrusive or A quick tour NCSA Mosaic software. (O'Reilly is limiting because both books include Ventana Press' Mosaic Quick Tour for a licensee of Spyglass Inc.) countless URLs for other Web sites. Mac (subtitled Accessing and Navi­ In the handbook, the authors So which, if any, book should you gating the Internet's World Wide Web ) explain the WWW and introduce buy? It depends. If you want a quick is a quick-to-read book with a breezy Mosaic, explore the Web, explain tutorial on the WWW and NCSA Mo­ and fun approach. Here is author HTML, walk through creating a saic, then spend $12 on the Mosaic Gareth Branwyn's transition from home page, and (in an appendix) list Quick Tour. If you want more de­ the nitty-gritty chapters to the rest the Mosaic menus and menu options. tailed information as well as soft­ of the book: "Now that we have the The foreword says the book is "more ware, then hand over $24.99 and get basic technical aspects out of the way than a description of the Mosaic the O'Reilly book. If you are on a and we're ready to roll, let's go for a interface; it's a guide to navigating limited budget, take an online look stroll through the Web to see what the Internet." The O'Reilly volume at NCSA Mosaic for Macintosh User's kind of trouble we can get ourselves spends considerable time on search­ Guide and the NCSA What's New into. Cyberspace beckons." ing the Web, using other Internet page. They aren't as thorough as the The stroll starts off with an expla­ services, and customizing your copy books reviewed here, but you can't nation of the Web, hypermedia, and of Mosaic. beat the price! .&. Mosaic's menus-in short, all the The Mosaic Handbook is a lot like stuff you need to know to understand the other offerings from O'Reilly­ Ginny David is a member of the Publica­ the value of a Web browser and how dense pages but with a nice layout tions Group and prepares WWW files. to use NCSA Mosaic. While this in­ troduction to the Web takes 70 pages, Ventana Visitors Center: http://www.vmedia.com/vvc it is not overwhelming because of Branwyn's style. Global Network Navigator: http://gnn.com/GNNhome.html Another chapter runs through a NCSA Mosaic for Macintosh User Guide: sample Web session (dubbed "web http://www. ncsa. uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/MacMosaic/Docs/MacMosa.O.html walking"), along the way explaining NCSA What's New: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html by Ginny Hudak-David

32 access Spring 1 995 abbreviations ARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency CTC Cornell Theory Center HPCC High Performance Computing and Communications NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications Nil National Information Infrastructure NSF National Science Foundation PSC Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center SDG Software Development Group SDSC San Diego Supercomputer Center SGI Silicon Graphics Inc. TMC Thinking Machines Corp. UIC University of Illinois at Chicago UIUC University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign URL Uniform Resource Locator VEG Virtual Environments Group www World Wide Web

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downloading from anonymous FTP server A number of NCSA publications are installed on the NCSA anonymous FTP sprver. If you arP t•onnectt>d to Internet, you can download NCSA publications by following the procedures below. If you have any questions regarding the connection or procedure, consult your local system administrator or network expert.

I. Log on to a host at your site that is connected to Internet and running software supporting the FTP command. 2. Invoke FTP by entering the Internet address of the server: ftp ftp. ncsa. uiuc. edu or ftp 141.142.20. SO 3. Log on using anonymous for the name. 4. Enter your local login name and address (e.g., [email protected] for the password. 5. Enter get README. FIRST to transfer the instructions file 1ASCII) to your local host. 6. Enter quit to exit FTP and return to your local host. 7. The NCSA publications are located in the /ncsapubs directory.

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