Engineering at NCSA is the focus of this issue. HPCC, Web technology, and many other of the Center's resources are enabling engineers to meet the challenges of their disciplines as they prepare for the 21st century. Cover produced on Macintosh llci using Adobe Photoshop, Aldus FreeHand, and a UMAX UC630 scanner. DEPARTMENTS NCSA Contacts 2 Editor's ote 3 Center Activities 42 Book Review 48 RESEARCH Modeling a Virtual Space with CFD: A Conference Room without Drafts 4 Building a Better Computer Chip 8 Exploratorium: User Friendly Science and Engineering 10 MetaCenter: Science Highlights on the Web 12 HARDWARE UPDATE NCSA's New and Upgraded Computational Resources 14 SPECIAL REPORT SC '95 Preview: c Next Generation of Internet to Debut 20 INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM Two New Partners for NCSA 26 Motorola Wins NCSA's Grand Challenge Award 27 EDUCATION The Learning Revolution 30 Operation EdulinK-12 34 CCNet/Ameritech Join in 'Net Testbed 35 NEW TECHNOLOGY Digital Commerce on the Web 36 NCSA Mosaic Update 40 ALLOCATIONS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS NETWORKING Radha Nandkumar Alan Craig [email protected] (217) 244-0650 (217) 244-1988 [email protected] iuc.edu [email protected] ORDERS FOR PUBLICATIONS , NCSA SOFTWARE , AND MULTIMEDIA Vicki Halberstadt MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (217) 244-5709 Debbie Shirley [email protected] Maxine Brown (217) 2 44-413 0 (217) 2 44-0072 [email protected] [email protected] APPLICATIONS GROUP/FACULTY PROGRAM PUBLICATIONS GROUP Melanie Loots MEDIA RELATIONS (217) 244-2921 Melissa Johnson [email protected] John Melchi (217) 2 44-064 5 (217) 244-3049 melissaj @ncsa.uiuc.edu [email protected] CHEMISTRY USER GROUP SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT GROUP Balaji Veeraraghavan MEDIA TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES (217) 333-2754 Jae Allen (information) [email protected] Tony Bay lis (217) 244-3473 (217) 244-1990 [email protected] tbayl is @ncsa.uiuc.edu COMMUNITY OUTREACH COORDINATOR [email protected] (services) TRAINING PROGRAM NCSA Scott Lathrop Jim Ferguson (information) CONTACTS (217) 244-1099 NCSA OPERATIONS [email protected] (217) 244-1974 Jeff Rosendale ferguson @ncsa.uiuc.edu (217) 244-2341 COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS [email protected] Deanna Spivey (registration) Charles Catlett (217) 244-0710 (services/help) (217) 244-1996 (217) 333-1163 help©ncsa.uiuc.edu [email protected] [email protected] USER SERVICES NCSA RECEPTIONIST CONSULTING-HPC AND MOSAIC Lex Lane (217) 2 44-1144 (217) 2 44-0072 (217) 2 44-064 2 8:30 a.m.- 5:00p.m. Central Time FAX (217) 244-1987 [email protected] [email protected] NCSA SECURITY OFFICER VISITORS PROGRAM EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PROGRAM Ken Rowe Jean Soliday John Ziebarth (217) 244-5270 (217) 244-1972 (217) 244-1961 [email protected] jsol iday©ncsa. ui uc.edu ziebarth @ncsa.uiuc.edu INDUSTRIAL PROGRAM Sea inside back cover for details on anonymous John Stevenson FTP, Gopher, and World Wide Web. (217) 244-0474 ENGINEERING AND NCSA SUMMER 1115 Imagi ne. If the great American engineer/inventor "Engineering is a combi- Charles F. Kettering were alive, he would probably be EDITOR pleased to see many applications of his philosophy nation of brains and Fran Bond represented in today's technological innovations. [email protected] materials-the more Wouldn't he be fascinated-especially if he could visit MAIAIIII EDITOR NCSA's virtual environment-to see what contemporary brains, the less material." Melissa laBorg johnson electronics can do? [email protected] Few tangible materials are needed for "Modeling a -charles F. Kettering lEW TECH OLOIIE EDITOR Virtual Space with CFD: A Conference Room Ginny Hudak-David without Drafts" (see page 4) utilizing NCSA's (1876-1958) CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). COPY EDITORS And "Building a Better Computer Chip" (page 8) Ginny Hudak-David Paulette Sancken within NCSA's CM-5 would be a wonder for Kettering. Throughout the Exploratorium (page 10) DESIIIER or the MetaCenter Web exhibit (page 12), he Amy Harten could witness further engineering/science mar­ vels provided via HPCC. Touring NCSA's machine room and discovering the hardware's Printed by the University of Illinois capabilities would amaze him (see page 14). Exploring within the I-WAY, lmmersaDesk, and Printing Services Division other amazing inventions described in the Special Report (beginning on page 20) might possibly occupy many "Ketterings" of coming generations. Industrial partners' activities (beginning on page 26), innovative teaching, and other EDITOR 'S departures in the Education and Outreach Group (see page 30)-including the kickoff of NOTE NC the Ameritech Electronic Community for Champaign-Urbana, and the possibility of making secure financial transactions on the Web (page 36)-are just a few innovations mentioned in this issue that were not around as recently as 10 years ago. You may find more as you page access (ISS 1064-9409) is published by through this issue. the ational Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at access gets a decidedly new look with this issue to complement the launching of NCSA's Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with support new logo (page 43)-both of which reflect the Center's major redefinition for meeting the from the National Science Foundation, scientific and technological challenges of the next decade. the Advanced Research Projects Agency, other federal agencies, corporate partners, -Fran Bond, Editor the University of Illinois, and the State of Illinois. Permission to reprint any item in access is freely given, provided that the author and access are acknowledged. Charles F. Kettering one of the most acclaimed engineers of his generation, Copyright 0 1995 Board of Trustees of invented the first electric drive cash register; electric starting, lighting, and igni­ the University of Illinois. tion systems for automobiles; and independent electric generators for home use. Antiknock gasoline and a family of refrigerant compounds were among his other major discoveries. Late in life, Kettering established foundations for studying plant photosynthesis (The C. F. Kettering Foundation for the Study of Chlorophyll and Photosynthesis, Antioch College, OH) and cancer (The Sloan-Kettering This publication is printed on Evergreen Institute for Cancer Research, NY). Matte and Evergreen Matte Cover 3 The next time you sit through a meeting I shivering or gasping breaths of stagnant air, think of Ping-Pong balls. 1rtua Imagine your room filled with these small spheres riding along on the currents of air, swooping down along the walls, or swirling about the vortices of whirlpools. Watch them as they collide and are propelled along paths that become more chaotic with each brief encounter. In their restless motion, you wi ll find a distraction from your discomfort as well as a glimpse of l(f its causes. In NCSA's virtual environment CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual I Environment), researchers are making Ping-Pong ball-like spheres circulate about a 30 model of a conference room. They do so not for entertainment but as part of a project to eliminate drafts, dead air pockets-€ven annoying hums. Their goal is to produce soft­ Wit ware that engineers and designers can use to diagnose circulation problems as well as to remedy and prevent them. Eventually, they will have a tool for designing conference rooms that are ideal from the start. I "Architects and consultants don't have access to this technology," I says Wi lliam ("Tilt'') Thompkins, assistant director of research for Mechatronics at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), which is funding the flow modeling portion of the project. "We want to be ab le to quickly custom-design conference and auditorium aconftrtnct areas in which both physical comfort and acoustics are important," he explains. NCSA industrial partner UTRC has good reasons to care about room without comfort. As owners of Carrier Corporation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial and residential heating, ventilating, and cooling systems, it wants to be able to offer these capabilities drafts to its customers. Discovering the tools for making a difference­ quickly-led them to NCSA. "NCSA has a major thrust in computational analysis and visu­ By Holly Korab alization," says Thompkins. ''What I'm doing with this project is Illustrations By John Havlik exploring how far we can push both of those technologies and how •••• well we can integrate them. This project is a one-of-a-kind effort CFD Group : to find out how far these disparate technologies can be combined http://www. ncsa .uiuc .edu . edu/Apps/CFD-homepage . html and integrated." 4 By simulating the path air follows as it circulates through a conference room , NCSA researchers are help· ing UTRC engineers design more effective heating and cooling systems. Colored sp_heres in this sequence of images indicate the RESEARCH temperatures and paths of air as particles injected at the vent descend along the walls (top), flow beneath the table (middle), and circulate through the room (bottom). (Courtesy of Danesh Tafti , NCSA research scientist; imag· ing by Derek Storr, NCSA student research assistant) 5 VISUALIZING AIR FLOW explains Tafti. "But then, a smooth flow will develop instabilities The conference room project began in 1994, inspired by a fun­ that rapidly transition into turbulence. Turbulent flow is random damental advancement in one of the technologies that Thompkins and chaotic." is helping push and integrate: fluid dynamics. Fluid dynamics can Within a span of only a few millimeters, small, random fluc­ be used to explain how sand tuations in a flow can spawn large spreads on the ocean floor and vortices of turbulence. Think of how air flows over the wings of what happens to smoke from a ciga­ IDLEST: A VERSATILE CODE FOR FLOW FIELDS a jet. For heating and cooling rette. It trails smoothly upwards for Speed and accuracy are not the only attributes sought in computing systems, engineers rely on fluid a little while, then suddenly bends dynamics to predict how air codes.