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Software Tools SIG report
SIG splits into two Focus Groups . . .
 Hans-Hermann Frese, chair of the new Compilers and Libraries Focus Group |
The Summer 1998 Cray User Group (CUG) conference in Stuttgart, Germany, was truly a matter of changes:
Clearly the most emotional point of this conference occurred when Bo Ewald and Irene Qualters said farewell to CUG. They both have been the cornerstones of Cray Research for many years and led the company to a top-ranking position in the supercomputing business. Bo and Irene were always open-minded to the concerns of their customers, and CUG members will miss the warm and sincere conversations Bo and Irene shared with them at so many CUG conferences. As a continuation of Cray's supercomputer tradition, SGI announced their new flagship, the CRAY SV1. Built from a multistreaming CMOS processor that can be configured as one CPU running at 4 gigaflops or as four independent CPUs running at 1 gigaflop each, a fully equipped CRAY SV1 will be capable of 1 teraflop peak performance. SGI's revised product roadmap shows a strong commitment to supercomputing for their future high-performance systems.
A variety of technical presentationsThe Software Tools SIG sponsored a number of presentations in Stuttgart:
Restructuring the SIGsThe Software Tools SIG met for its last open meeting in Stuttgart on Monday afternoon. Software Tools SIG chair Hans-Hermann Frese discussed the report of the Future of CUG Committee with the SIG members and presented the proposed new organization.The new structure was in the main appreciated by Software Tools SIG members, although some people felt run over by its implementation as they had not heard anything about the new organization before the conference. The new structure was proposed to improve the technical activities of the CUG SIGs. As part of the proposal, which was approved by CUG membership, the existing SIGs were reorganized into a two-tier structure with five "super" SIGs and a flexible number of Focus Groups under each SIG. (For details, see "CUG SIGs get a facelift" and A guide to the new CUG SIGs.") As a consequence, the former Software Tools SIG was split up into the Compilers and Libraries Focus Group and the Software Tools Focus Group. These two Focus Groups reside under the new Programming Environments SIG. Hans-Hermann Frese (ZIB), former chair of the Software Tools SIG, will chair the new Compilers and Libraries Focus Group, which will take over most of the topics of the former Software Tools SIG. Guy Robinson from the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, will chair the new Software Tools Focus Group . Jeff Kuehn from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA, will chair the new Programming Environments SIG.
Looking aheadThe next CUG annual conference will take place May 24-28, 1999, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. If you would like to present a paper in the area of Compilers and Libraries, Tools, or Programming Environments, please contact the respective SIG chair: Hans-Hermann Frese, Guy Robinson, or Jeff Kuehn. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is November 15, 1998.
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