November 14, 2003: Starbridge's Viva® Software Wins HPCwire's Award for Most Innovative High Performance TechnologySoftware Application Delivers the Most Innovative High-performance Computing Technology Midvale UT, November 14, 2003 – Starbridge Systems, Inc. was awarded the HPCwire 2003 Editors Choice for the software application vendor delivering the most innovative high-performance computing technology for 2003. Starbridge, the Hypercomputing company, provides both a development tool called Viva, and a massively parallel, linearly scalable, reconfigurable computer, called the Hypercomputer. Using Viva, developers can create highly efficient custom circuitry for running complex algorithms directly in the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) hardware of the Hypercomputer. The result is a custom supercomputing application which achieves results comparable or even superior to code running on traditional large clusters of several hundred CPUs-in one small rack-mountable computer. HPCwire, the journal of record for high performance computing, will present their 2003 Readers Choice Awards at the SC2003 Show, the annual supercomputer show, on November 17, 2003. These accolades, unprecedented in the history of the HPC industry, have been determined by polling a percentage of HPCwire’s worldwide readership as well as a panel of luminaries including Fran Berman, Jay Boisseau, John Hurley, Earl Joseph, and Cherri Pancake, designated as the Editors Choice. Starbridge is using Viva to develop applications for solving grand-challenge computational problems in the Biosciences, Geosciences and Defense markets. For example, a recent Viva implementation of the Smith Waterman algorithm, a pattern matching tool widely used in biosciences research, has shown unprecedented performance and scalability for manipulating very large sets of genetic information. Traditional text-based development tools for programming FPGAs are used for circuitry design and layout, limited to one or a portion of one FPGA. Because of its object oriented graphical nature, Viva enables very large designs to be easily accomplished-creating custom architecture that spans a multitude of FPGAs and large on-board memory. By eliminated predefined constraints such as fixed data types, sizes and serial execution, Viva can create optimized custom architecture that exploits the natural parallelisms present in most algorithms. Viva can also be used as the development environment for other hardware platforms that include components such as FPGAs, micro-processors, ASICs, communications hardware or even complete systems. “Until now, harnessing the computing power of FPGAs has been a time-consuming process requiring the use of text-based design languages,” said Daniel Oswald, President and CEO, Starbridge Systems. “We are thrilled to be recognized for Viva, which introduces the potential to abstract gate-level design to a higher, more intuitive level for researchers and scientists.” Some of the world’s most advanced and reputable organizations-from NASA to the United States Air Force—are already using Viva and Hypercomputers to create specific applications for their research and development needs. Scientists at NASA’s Langley Research Center use a Starbridge Hypercomputer for projects that push traditional computational boundaries, including radiation analyses, digital signal processing, and atmospheric studies. The Air Force is using Viva to program embedded FPGA chips for munitions applications and for high speed image processing. HPCwire’s Readers Choice Awards mark the first time that those on the front lines of both commercial and academic high performance computing have offered their personal input on exactly where the cutting edge of technology lies. The results are sure to provoke much controversy as well as create serious food for thought. Tom Tabor presents the HPCwire Readers Choice Award to Starbridge Executives, Dan Oswald and Kent Gilson
About HPCwireHPCwire is the worldwide publication of record for all aspects of the (H)igh (P)erformance©omputing industry. Devoted primarily to ongoing developments across the entire spectrum of computationally-intensive hardware, software and integrated systems technology, HPCwire also covers related business, corporate, economic and governmental news in a timely and easily-accessible Internet format. Authoritative commentary and analysis by HPC insiders and professionals are also included regularly to insure maximum value for readers, no matter how complex the issues. HPCwire is a weekly electronic publication with over 57,000 readers. About Starbridge Systems, Inc.: The Hypercomputer CompanyUtah-based Star Bridge Systems was founded in 1998 to harness and exploit the inherent advantages of reconfigurable technologies to create a new and better way of computing. Reconfigurable computing (RC) systems can alter their hardware configuration in response to changing user requirements, utilizing programmable processor chips called Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Compared with conventional processors, reconfigurable systems offer significant advantages in speed, flexibility, versatility and efficiencies of size, weight and electrical power consumption. Information is available at www.starbridgesystems.com, by phone at 801-984-4444, or by email at info@starbridgesystems.com. Contacts: Contact HPCwire |
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