Here is a collection of highlights from this week's news stream as reported by HPCwire.

Voltaire Delivers Unified Fabric Manager Software for HP

ANSYS HPC Supports Simulation Driven Product Development

NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation CUDA GPU Architecture 'Fermi'

NVIDIA Intros Integrated GPU/CPU Development Solution

ORNL Gives Thumbs Up to 'Fermi'

Fujitsu Wins Supercomputer Order from Japanese Research Org

OSC Offers Remote Viz Using NVIDIA Quadro Plex

SDSC Part of $15M 'FutureGrid' Project

CUDA Fortran Compiler Beta Release Now Available

eXludus Announces Multicore Optimization Software

NVIDIA Collaborates w/ Microsoft on GPU Computing

NSF Awards $7M to TACC for Remote Visualization and Data Analysis

U of Tennessee to Establish Data Analysis Center

Supercomputer Says Gotcha to Terrorists

The Air Force Research Laboratory is developing a radar system to keep watch over entire cities, looking for anomolies that could indicate terrorist activity. However, the huge amount of data being generated by the Gotcha radar requires a lot of computing muscle:

[T]he massive amounts of raw data collected by Gotcha's synthetic aperture radar requires immense computing power to translate its city-sized stare into 3D images, zoom into areas of interest, observe minute scenery changes and track moving vehicles in complex urban environments.

That's where SGI's "Desch" comes into play:

[Desch] is an SGI Altix ICE 8200 supercomputer, optimized to make sense of terabytes of streaming data in real-time and turn that data into high resolution images that can help future intelligence analysts and military decision makers turn the tide against those whose aim is to create havoc.

Desch was named after Joseph Desch, who used early computers to decode Nazi-encrypted messages in a top-secret military project during World War II.

Air Force reseearchers are hoping to demonstrate Gotcha's capabilities over a 5 kilometer city-sized circle by fall of 2010.

Sun HPC Consortium To Be Held Alongside SC09

Sun announced that it will be holding its HPC Consortium in conjunction with SC09 in Portland, Oregon, Nov. 14-15.

The Sun High Performance Computing Consortium (SHPCC) is an independent, volunteer-organized, international group of member organizations that own or use Sun computer systems with emphasis on high-performance, technical computing, and visualization.

All those interested in high performance computing and/or Sun technologies -- from researchers or developers to CIOs and VPs -- are invited to attend. For more information, visit https://meeting-reg.com/sunhpcc/index.php.

Holyoke HPC Center Moves Forward

MassLive.com reports on forward progress in regards to the planned Holyoke, Mass., high performance computing center.

The proposed high-performance computer center is moving closer to reality following a meeting this week in which the principals involved reached a "substantial agreement," according to the University of Massachusetts President Jack M. Wilson.

At an editorial board meeting at the Springfield Republican on Thursday, Wilson said "the principals...have reached a substantial agreement" and he expects to have an announcement soon.

The $50-$100 million center was first announced back and June, and, according to Wilson, the mimimum amount of money required for the project has been secured. Further details will be announced soon.