STUTTGART, GERMANY -- The High Performance Computing Centre Stuttgart (HLRS) in Germany will demonstrate distributed computing and collaborative working between different European High Performance Computing Centres and the European Networking Demonstrations booth at Supercomputing '99.

The world's largest conference on High Performance Networking and Computing will be held November 13-19 in Portland/Oregon.

The transatlantic connection from the SC'99 booth to the High Performance Computing Centre Stuttgart (HLRS) in Germany, will be provided by the German Research Network (DFN). From there on the pan-European research network TEN-155 will distribute to the Centre for Parallel Computing (KTH) in Stockholm/Sweden via NORDUnet, the Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS) in Toulouse/France via RENATER and the Manchester Computing Centre (MCC) in the UK via UKERNA/JANET.

Based on this high-speed network operated at 155 Mbps, test cases will be shown, that access remote computing and data base resources, control remote simulations in virtual reality, enable collaboration between distributed work teams and access remote medical facilities.

The showcased networking technology is employed in European projects in order to explore its influence on work flow simplification and optimisation in many business sectors.

Aeronautics, automotive and machinery virtual prototypes, only existing as computer models, are optimised via virtual reality interaction, where the behaviour of the models is calculated and transparently provided by a Supercomputer located in Stuttgart/Germany.

Also, in automotive industry, calculation and design engineers can simultaneously discuss and modify complex simulations on crash tests and car engine designs.

In the aerospace domain, networking technology is used to train astronauts and ground controllers in tele-operating space systems, such as the automated transfer vehicle used for the servicing of the International Space Station.

Physicians profit from high performance networking since it connects hospitals to high performance computing facilities which generate 3D visualisations of large amounts of tomography data.

Finally, small de-centralised engineering enterprises raise their competitiveness when inter-connected over broadband networks.

The European Networking Demonstrations will mainly focus on R&D as well as best practice projects which typically combine partners from research organisations, technology providers and industrial end users, allowing them to evaluate the usefulness of new concepts or new ways of working.

Especially small and medium sized enterprises are targeted within these projects to facilitate the uptake of new technologies into business.

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