High Performance Computing and Multimedia Networking for Research and Education in Saitama University

Saitama University
Information Processing Center

Contact person for this exhibit: Exhibitor names:M.Fukushima, Y.Kaminuma, K.Iwashita, H.Hirahara, M.Kashiwagi, Y.Konishi, M.Abe and S.Ido

Abstract

This research exhibit will demonstrate the applications of supercomputing and networking in the fields of research, education and news (or bulletin boards) in Saitama University, which has cooperations with elementary schools, middle schools in the local area to develop the education program for pupils and the students in Faculty of Education. The key institute of university's supercomputing and networking is Information Processing Center which has the responsibility to maintain the multimedia networks in the whole university, including FDDI and CATV, and high performance computers of vector type and parallel type. Parallel computing has been developed in the past one year especially because the whole computing resources are planned to shift from a vector one to a parallel one, and parallel applications have been enoughly developed in the research fields during last several years. Some successful applications of parallel computing in the field of electrical, mechanical and civil engineering will be demonstrated actually by using parallel computers in the booth and in the Saitama campus.
Most applications for education and news are developed on the WWW system. The successful samples are : (1) usual guidance to the university activities in research, education and administration, (2) multimedia demonstration of scientific knowledge, (3) guidance to the lecture content ( Faculty of Engineering ), and (4) cooperating education program between elementary / middle schools and the students of Faculty of Education.
The unique and extremely successful application of WWW in the university is the multimedia database of Chinese poems, "The World of Chinese Poems" which includes the Chinese letter (kanji) text, Japanese translation and singing, audio sounds of singing, pictures and explanations, being developed by the staff of Information Processing Center. It was successfully demonstrated in the last research exhibit in SC94 and attracted a lot of interest of Asian, Japanese and American visitors, and has become well-known after SC94, introduced by Japanese commercial TV and journals. It has been significantly enhanced for SC95.
The application of CATV are also developed by the Information Processing Center to find the cooperations between the digital processing environments and the traditional broadcasting system which can be useful to give some informations.

Exhibit Logistics

Equipment:
We will bring workstations and Mac/PCs to SC95, being supported by the cooperating compamies in USA. Even a parallel computer with 8 or 16 processors which is similar to the one by the exhibitors in Saitama University may be installed in the booth owing to the enough support by the companies. This is expected to be used as an environment to demonstrate the actual applications of parallel computing and the WWW server. They are connected inside the booth and moreover connected to the network of SC95. We expect to get the good connection to the outside area of SC95, even though it is still optional for our exhibitions.

Size and Layout:
We request an exhibit area to include 1x2 block as same as in Supercomputing '94. Posters are on the back panels and additional boards. A video system is on the side in the booth. Four or five display monitors of workstations, Mac/PCs and a parallel computer are shown to the visitors. Computers are stored in the center of the booth or under the desks. Overall layout is similar to the one in SC94.

Exhibit SciNet Connections:
We will need the 10baseT Ethernet drop to connect Sci Net.

Exhibit Furnishings:
Some additional requests, such as four more chairs, back panels, additional desks. Video system of one TV display and one VTR will be required as similarly as in SC94, Washington DC where there was a free supply system. If it will be charged, it is also OK when some convenient rental company will attend there.

Exhibit power connections:
No special requests to the 110V power supply, maximum will be 50A. Additionally, we need 200V power line for a compact parallel system with maximum 50A.

Shipping:
No special help requested

Exhibit Technical Plan

The exhibit will contain posters describing the technical issues and the demonstration on the local Web system installed into a parallel computer or a workstation, transferred from the Saitama University's WWW. The direct connection to the present Saitama University's WWW system in Japan is also available, but may be less useful due to the limitation of communication band width between Japan and USA. The whole WWW system and additional demonstration informations are stored in a CD-ROM. The free CD-ROM will be distributed in the booth to those who are interested in Saitama University's activities. Video and TV system will be used for the automatic guidance to the present activities, and the demonstration of the video programs developed by the university and used in the CATV system inside the university, which is a part of the whole university networks. Some documents and booklets on the present situations of research and education are displayed and distributed at the desks in the booth.

Queries to S.Ido ido@d-butsu.ees.saitama-u.ac.jp, and M.Fukushima fuku@cent.saitama-u.ac.jp, 27 July 1995