Collaboration with Industry

Area 3 Collaborative Software Project with Fujitsu Limited

The Area 3 collaborative software development project with Fujitsu Japan was established in 1989 with the aim of porting and optimizing computational chemistry software on the VP-100. After a successful first year, the scope of the project was widened to include mathematical and graphical software

A sub-project in environmental modelling begun with Fujitsu's Research Centre for Computational Science in 1993 was continued in 1995. The CCM1 climate model from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA which was earlier established on the Fujitsu AP1000 parallel computer was further optimized and work on Urban Heat Island modelling and visualization finalized. Dr Jay Larson, continued his appointment as a post-doctoral fellow to participate in this work in conjunction with ANUSF staff and Mr Gavin Michael and other members of the Department of Computer Science who took a major role in this work. The CCM2 climate model was alson ported to the AP1000 and VP2200.

As well as some porting and optimization activities, work was continued on implementing computational chemistry algorithms and software on the massively parallel AP1000. Porting was continued to establish computational chemistry packages on the new generation VPP500 supercomputer as well as the VP series. Other aspects of the project in 1995 included investigations of the comparative functionality and performance of the current computational chemistry software base and an evaluation of a mathematics library for the AP1000.

A large number of computational chemistry packages, all of academic interest, and many also of commercial interest, have been completed in this project and form the basis of a comprehensive list of such software available on Fujitsu machines. Several of these packages are in production use at ANU and are also heavily used by external users.

During the year there were many contacts between Fujitsu Japan and ANU relating to this project, including visits by Dr Gingold and Dr Rendell to Japan and visits to the ANU by Fujitsu staff. Staff working on the project in 1995 included Drs Rendell, Edberg, Wielopolski, Ms Stals and Mr Michael and Mr Sitsky of the Department of Computer Science, FEIT. Following his resignation from the Facility, Dr Nobes was employed as a part-time consultant to the Area 3 project.

Area 4 Parallel-Vector Mathematics Library Project with Fujitsu Limited

This project completed commenced in 1992 and is focussed on researching and developing mathematical library algorithms and code for Fujitsu's new VPP500 and VPP300 supercomputers.

The Supercomputer Facility is managing this project and four of the staff are actively involved in the work. Academic direction and leadership of the project is under Professor R Brent, CSL, RSISE and Professor M Osborne, Program in Advanced Computation, CMA, SMS.

Three research fellow positions were funded under this project. In April1995 Dr Andrew Cleary left to join Dr Dongarra's group at the University of Tennessee. Dr Markus Hegland continued his role in the project following his taking up a position in CSL, RSISE. Dr Zbigniew Leyck and Mr David Miron continued the project during the year and were joined by Dr David Harrar II. These staff are located in the SMS and CSL, RSISE. Dr M Dow, Ms J Jenkinson, Dr M Kahn and Dr D Singleton of the ANUSF have also been actively involved. During 1995, Dr Kahn took an increasing role in the management of the project.

The project has excited considerable interest among staff of the School of Mathematical Sciences and the Computer Science Laboratory, RSISE. In 1995, Dr Zhou Bing Bing and Dr Ole Nielsen also made direct contributions to the project.

As with the Area 3 project described above, there is increasing overlap between this project and parts of the Area 2 CAP project centred on the AP1000 involving the Department of Computer Science and the Computer Science Laboratory, RSISE.

One Australia Yacht Design

In 1993, the University entered into an agreement with Sun Microsystems to supply supercomputer resources and support to assist the design by Fluid Thinking Pty Ltd of a challenger for the America's Cup by the One Australia Consortium led by John Bertram. Fluid Thinking were also contracted to do design work for a second Australian challenger by Syd Fischer's syndicate, Australian Challenge. During the race series early in 1995, Fluid Thinking moved to San Diego and a dedicated network link to the ANU was installed to aid in the continuation of the fluid dynamics design work from the USA.

Other

Together with the Department of Engineering, FEIT and Curtin University of Technology a proposal was submitted to the Department of Industry, Science and Techology High Performance Computing and Communications Diffusion Program late in the year. This program aims at assisting the diffusion into Australian industry of the techniques and resources available in high performance computing and communications.