This is the November 2002 newsletter of the ITC Research Computing Support Group. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the information presented here, please contact the ITC Research Computing Support Group via e-mail to res-consult@virginia.edu, or at the Research Computing Support Center (RCSC), 244 Wilson Hall, 243-8800. The RCSC is open 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday.
The Aspen Linux cluster is running the Redhat 7.2 operating system,
and the PBS Pro 5.2 resource management software is used for batch job
queuing and scheduling. In addition, most of the research computing
software that is commonly available on our other high performance
computing platforms is available on this cluster. This Aspen
cluster is deployed similar to the existing IBM SP cluster (e.g., your
home directory is automatically mounted to it). If you have an account
on the SP or any of our other research computing/high performance
platforms, you use the same account to access this new cluster. The Web
page with information about and instructions on getting started and
using the Aspen Linux cluster is available at: The incorporation of the Aspen Linux cluster into ITC's high
performance computing platforms fulfills some of the key recommendations
of the University Research Computing Task Force (www.itc.Virginia.EDU/rctf/)
and its faculty ad hoc sub-committee on High Performance Computing.
This Aspen cluster is part of the replacement hardware for the aging IBM
SP cluster of 24 compute nodes. The IBM SP cluster will be phased out
in the foreseeable future. Questions regarding these matters should
be addressed to the Research Computing Support Center by telephoning
243-8800 or e-mailing Res-Consult@Virginia.EDU.
The SAS Enterprise Guide is an easy-to-use Windows application that
provides access to much of the functionality of SAS through an
intuitive, visual, customizable interface. SAS Enterprise Guide 2.0
for Windows is now available for PC SAS users. University of Virginia
faculty and staff who wish to install Enterprise Guide on their own
Windows machine may obtain the CDs from Research Computing Support
Center. The Enterprise Guide can be installed on a U.Va-owned or
personal computer, but it may only be used for U.Va. related work while
here at the University. Enterprise Guide is a project-oriented
Windows application designed to enable quick access to much of the
analytic power of the SAS System for statisticians, business analysts,
and SAS programmers. Leveraging the power of SAS on many platforms,
Enterprise Guide enables users to access data locally or on SAS servers,
manage the data, perform basic reporting and summaries, perform basic
and complex data analyses, utilize the highest quality SAS graphics, and
export or publish results to SAS servers and other Windows or server
based applications. Work done in Enterprise Guide can also be
easily shared by other Enterprise Guide users. Most work done in
Enterprise Guide can be shared with other SAS users external to
Enterprise Guide via the transparent SAS code generation underpinning
the application. Visit http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/sas/eguide.html
for system requirements and further information on SAS Enterprise Guide.
Matlab users should be aware of a new feature in Matlab 6.5 called the
JIT (Just In Time) Accelerator that can have an enormous impact on the
performance of a Matlab program run in batch mode. The JIT Accelerator
is automatically used when running Matlab programs interactively (i.e.
from within the Matlab environment) but to take advantage of the
Accelerator when running Matlab programs in batch mode, one must invoke
Matlab using the -r option to execute the program as you would from the
Matlab prompt, e.g.
nohup matlab -nodesktop -r "matlab_script;exit" > output_file &
rather than using the standard Unix redirect operator to input the
M-file to Matlab, e.g.
nohup matlab -nodesktop < matlab_script.m > output_file & Using
the -r option can improve the execution speed of Matlab 6.5 batch
program by more than an order of magnitude. Further information can be
found under the heading "Running Matlab in batch mode" on the Web page
www.itc.Virginia.EDU/research/matlab/
General guidelines form improving the performance of Matlab programs
can be found on the Web page
www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/matlab_prog/ch7_perf.shtml
As part of the Maple site license, all faculty members are eligible to
access the MaplePrimes web site at http://www.mapleprimes.com. The
electronic version (PDF) of four Maple 8 manuals are downloadable from
within the site. In addition to easy access to the documentation, the
site has been recently updated with Calc1 Maplets, a set of
revolutionary calculus lessons based on maplets technology.
Eligible Maple users at the University of Virginia may contact Research
Computing by phone at 243-8800 or by email to res-consult@Virginia.EDU
to get a master Authorization Code to gain access to Mapleprimes at
http://www.mapleprimes.com for their first visit. Once they have
entered the site, they should then create their own account, complete
with personal UserID and Password. The electronic version (PDF) of
the four Maple 8 manuals may be downloaded and printed for personal use
or stored as a copy on a personal machine. The available manuals are
The Maple Learning Guide, The Maple 8 Getting Started
Guide, The Maple 8 Introductory Programming Guide, and The
Maple 8 Advanced Programming Guide. The Maple Getting
Started Guide contains an introduction to the graphical user
interface and a tutorial that outlines using Maple to solve mathematical
problems and create technical documents. In it, there is additional
information for new users about the online help system, New Users Tour,
example worksheets, and Waterloo Maple Web site. The Maple
Learning Guide presents methods for numerical and symbolic
computations, essential syntax for expression manipulation and finding
solutions. Graphics, file input and output and Maplets are also
introduced. The Learning Guide places particular emphasis on not
only finding solutions but also plotting or animating results and
exporting worksheets to other formats. The Maple Introductory
Programming Guide introduces the basic Maple programming concepts,
such as expressions, data structures, looping and decisions mechanisms,
procedures, input and output, debugging, and Maplets. The Maple
Introductory Programming Guide introduces the basic Maple
programming concepts, such as expressions, data structures, looping and
decisions mechanisms, procedures, input and output, debugging, and
Maplets. The Maple Advanced Programming Guide extends the
basic Maple programming concepts to more advanced topics, such as
modules, input and output, numerical programming, graphics programming,
and compiled code.
July 13-15, 2003 Waterloo Maple announces a call for papers for the Maple Summer
Workshop 2003. Deadline for submissions is February 7, 2003. The
Maple Summer Workshop is an annual international meeting that brings
together members of the Maple community to share techniques and
innovative uses of Maple in education, research, and industry. The
program committee welcomes papers on: Paper abstract submissions are still being accepted
for the ESRI Education User Conference 2003. Find ESRI
Education User Conference 2003 Abstract Submission Information at http://www.esri.com/educ The
ESRI International User Conference 2003 submission deadline was on
November 1, 2002.
The
University Bookstore is conducting its annual Springer Verlag
MATHEMATICS Yellow Sale for Fall 2002. The sale will run through
December 31, 2002. Over 200 selected titles in mathematics and
related areas of interest are available at substantial discounts off of
the list prices. Faculty, Staff, TA, and Departmental discounts
apply in addition to Springer's discounts. Keep an eye on their Web
site (http://www.bookstore.virginia.edu)
where they will soon have links to Springer's COMPUTERS, PHYSICS AND
STATISTICS SALE Catalogs. Questions: Contact the U.Va. Bookstore at
924-1073 or e-mail bookshop@virginia.edu.
HES Seminar: Automating Statistical Reporting for
Clinical Trials, November 13
Please join
the department of Health Evaluation Sciences for their fifth seminar of
the semester, entitled "Automating Statistical Reporting for Clinical
Trials." This seminar will be held on Wednesday, November 13, at 4:00
p.m., in Classroom A at the department of Health Evaluation Sciences
(924-8430). (Classroom A is on the third floor of the Multistory
Building; off of the "Main Elevators" adjacent to ITC and Psychiatric
Medicine). For additional information, please contact Frank Harrell, Division of
Biostatistics & Epidemiology.
New ITC Linux Cluster for High Performance Computing
ITC has a new 48-node Linux cluster to support high performance
computing needs at the University. The cluster was purchased from Aspen
Systems, Inc. (www.aspsys.com).
Each node contains two 1.53 GHz AMD Athlon K7 MP processors with 256KB
of cache per cpu and 1 GB of RAM. The nodes are interconnected using
Gigabit Ethernet to provide fast communication for parallel processing.
http://www.itc.Virginia.EDU/research/aspen_cluster/
SAS Enterprise Guide 2.0 for Windows Available
"Just In Time" Accelerator for Matlab 6.5 Users
Mapleprimes and PDF Documentation for Maple 8
Call for Papers
for the Maple Summer Workshop 2003
Wilfred Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada
For more information on submission procedures and the Workshop, please
visit http://www.maplesoft.com/msw
ESRI User Conference 2003 - Call for Paper
Abstracts
ESRI Education User Conference 2003 submission deadline:
December 2, 2002
Springer Verlag
Mathematics Yellow Sale through 12/31/02
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