Subject: Computational Chemistry and the National Software Exchange

From: [email-masked] (J. C. T. Pool)
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 1994 21:03:40 -0800

The message below has been circulated to several newsgroups, mailing lists,
etc.  I am submitting it to CCL because I have undertaken the
responsibility to interface with the computational chemistry community
interested in using high performance computer systems, scalable systems
ranging from networks of workstations to parallel-vector-supercomputers to
massively parallel processors.

NSE's objective is not to duplicate efforts in the computational chemistry
community.

NSE's objective is to interface current and future efforts in the
computational chemistry community to the HPCC National Software Exchange.

The following is a brief extract from the proposal for the NSE which
emphasizes the approach advocated by the NSE developers.

"The key to a successful software distribution system will be the establishment
of a scalable mechanism for distributing software via the national information
infrastructure. Many Internet sites have sizable collections of documents or
software. It is both unnecessary and undesirable to require that these
collections reside at a single site. We plan to put together a CRPC HPCC Mosaic
Home Page that will capture in one place the software from the HPCC effort.

We plan to develop a software exchange capability for the HPCC community based
on existing network interfaces such as Mosaic. This capability is intended to
provide mechanisms for the community to access a number of existing software.

The maximal benefit to the community will be achieved by having an architecture
for software exchange that is open. This will allow a network repository to
grow over time. Initially, we will provide existing software technologies to
the HPCC community. This will be done by building on existing components to
build a prototype that will serve as a model of how such a system should be put
together."

IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS SPECIFICALLY RELATED TO THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE
COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY AND THE NATIONAL SOFTWARE EXCHANGE,
PLEASE SEND THE COMMENTS TO THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS

[email-masked]

Thanks,

Jim Pool
Deputy Director
Caltech Concurrent Supercomputing Facilities

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The message circulated to numerous newsgroups, mailing lists, etc. follows.

To facilitate the development and distribution of software enabling
technologies for high performance computing we have set up a National
Software Exchange (NSE) for the High Performance Computing and
Communications community.

The project has the following goals:

   o  Wide availability of high-quality, public-domain software for
      high performance computers.

   o  Promotion of software reuse.

   o  Collaboration and information sharing between
      universities, research laboratories, and industry.

   o  Active participation by Grand Challenge groups and other
      research scientists, both in contributing to and in using the NSE.

   o  Promotion of technology transfer and software capitalization.

A prototype system is in place and can be accessed through the URL:

           http://www.netlib.org/nse/home.html

As an overview to the system, information is provided on the following topics:

  HPCC Programs and Activities
  Grand Challenges
  Software / Enabling Technologies
     Repositories
     Packages
      Application Level
      Library Software
      Parallel Programming Environments
      Parallel Programming Languages
      Performance Visualization
  Information Databases
  Commercial Vendor Catalog
  Reports, Journals, and Professional Societies
  Related Network Resources

Please send comments and suggestions to [email-masked].

This project is being funded by NASA and is a collaborative effort
coordinated through the Center for Research on Parallel Computation, a NSF
Science and Technology Center, by the following individuals:

  Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  Geoffrey Fox, Syracuse University
  Ken Kennedy, Rice University
  Jim Pool, California Institute of Technology
  Rick Stevens, Argonne National Laboratory

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
James C. T. Pool, Deputy Director             Tel:   818-395-6743
Caltech Concurrent Supercomputing Facility    Fax:   818-584-5917
California Institute of Technology, MC 158-79
1201 East California Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91125                            Email: [email-masked]