PHYSICS

Numerical Analysis and Visualization Software Leader and Prominent Academic Research Center to Address Computing Problems Facing the Scientific, Engineering and Business Communities -- Visual Numerics Inc., a leading provider of numerical analysis and visualization software, and the Cornell Theory Center (CTC), Cornell University's high-performance computing and interdisciplinary research center, announced that they will combine their technology and knowledge to advance high-performance computing solutions. By joining Visual Numerics' world-class IMSL™ numerical libraries with CTC's high-performance computing research-based services, these two technology innovators will address real-world computing problems in a number of disciplines, including behavioral and social sciences, medical sciences, engineering, computer science and mathematics, and a wide range of business applications. "The Cornell Theory Center has a solid understanding of the computing obstacles faced by organizations across multiple fields operating in high-performance computing environments. Their expertise is a perfect complement to our industry-leading numerical analysis and visualization technology," said Phil Fraher, COO of Visual Numerics. "By adding another highly regarded academic institution to our education network, we can share Visual Numerics' numerical libraries with an extended community of scientific, engineering and business users. Our partnership is sure to bring significant advances to engineers and researchers for years to come." "CTC works diligently to help people working in a variety of fields optimize their computing resources and eliminate computational bottlenecks," said Tom Coleman, director of the Cornell Theory Center. "We have found that using industry standard hardware and software provides an efficient and fiscally responsible solution to solving computationally and data-intensive problems. The collaboration with Visual Numerics is an example of our commitment to sharing the benefits of high-performance computing with a growing number of users by making it accessible and understandable." Visual Numerics' IMSL numerical libraries are a comprehensive set of mathematical and statistical functions that programmers can easily embed into their software applications. Fortune 500 companies and leading R&D labs and universities around the world rely on IMSL for a wide variety of business-critical applications covering areas such as risk management, portfolio optimization, weather forecasting, automotive and aerospace manufacturing, inventory management, and pharmaceutical trials. The IMSL libraries enable development of applications for high-performance computing in a much quicker timeframe by freeing programmers from developing their own internal code. IMSL provides rigorously tested, well-documented and commercially supported mathematical and statistical algorithms that can easily be integrated into C, Java™, and Fortran applications. CTC will integrate Visual Numerics' IMSL numerical libraries into its own HPC environment in order to offer users a more advanced cluster computing platform. In addition, the partnership will enable the two organizations to jointly address the growing number of increasingly complex issues that result from the use of new technologies within highly collaborative, research-driven environments. As part of the partnership, Visual Numerics and CTC will co-host seminars, workshops and live demonstrations, which will illustrate problem-solving techniques for developers and technical engineers. CTC is a high-performance computing and interdisciplinary research center located on the Ithaca campus of Cornell University with additional offices in Manhattan. CTC currently operates an Intel/Windows cluster complex consisting of more than 1,500 processors, in addition to Unisys ES7000 Servers. Scientific and engineering projects supported by CTC represent a vast variety of disciplines, including bioinformatics and computational biology, behavioral and social sciences, computer science, engineering, finance, geosciences, mathematics, physical sciences, and business. CTC offers assistance to institutions that are considering implementing Windows-based HPC systems and provides online and hands-on training in all aspects of Windows HPC, from systems management to code porting. For more information, visit http://www.tc.cornell.edu or http://www.ctc-hpc.com. Visual Numerics has provided technical software solutions for numerical analysis and visualization for over 30 years. The company's software products help users understand complex data from a variety of sources and build business-critical applications. Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL™ Numerical Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and the PV-WAVE visual data analysis development environment. Visual Numerics also offers customized consulting services for applications that involve mathematical, statistical, or visual data analysis to meet today's business analytical needs. Major corporations, academic institutions, and research laboratories worldwide use Visual Numerics' software tools, including such high profile companies as: Bear, Stearns & Company; Priceline.com; The Dow Chemical Company; Sandia National Laboratories; Boeing Company; Risk Management Solutions; and Coleman Research Corp. This large and diverse customer base is supported through a direct sales force, wholly owned international subsidiaries, and international distributors. For more information about Visual Numerics, please visit www.vni.com.