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Parallel Programming: Soon the Only Game in Town  The news is not that parallel programming is here—it has been here for a long time.
The news is that parallel programming will shortly be pervasive, from embedded systems, to computer aided design/computer assisted manufacturing (CAD/CAM) workstations, to supervisory systems, to high-performance computing clusters.
“We’re seeing more and more complex control algorithms,” says Casey Weltzin, product manager for LabView Real-Time at test and automation supplier National Instruments Corp. (www.ni.com), in Austin, Texas. “Automation systems will need to be more reliable to incorporate more features. This will require greater processing speed. But we won’t get that performance by relying on faster clock rates to run traditional sequential programs faster. We’re not likely to move much above the current 3 gigahertz (GHz) because of fundamental power consumption and dissipation issues. Instead, we’ll get the performance by distributing the tasks that together solve a single problem across multi-core processors. The only way to realize the potential of these newer processors is with parallel programming strategies..."
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» INFRASTRUCTURE: Instrumentation Connectivity Breeds Better Business -
“Doing nothing is a strategy for going out of business,” insists Ron Helson, executive director of Austin, Texas-based Hart Communication Foundation (HCF, www.hartcomm.org).
While that notion seems obvious, end-users who don’t understand—who don’t strive to maximize process control, squeeze the most useable data from instrumentation and then transmit it in real- or near-real-time to decision-makers—may learn first-hand the consequence of the do-nothing strategy.
To help avert end-users’ agony and keep them in business, HCF, Germany-based Profibus Nutzerorganisation, several global automation vendors and Austin, Texas-based Fieldbus Foundation (Foundation, www.fieldbus.org) collaborate on the FDI Team Project (for field device integration)...
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» AUTOMATION TEAM: Automation Profession Faces Transition into Complexity and Opportunity -
The state of the automation profession follows directly from its genealogy and environment.
It is in transition, unsettled by current events and its own successes. Automation draws together multiple threads of knowledge with little regard for traditional domain boundaries: machine design from mechanical engineering, control theory from electrical engineering, software from computer science, and methods for design and integration from systems engineering...
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» INDUSTRIES: Anxious Times for Oil & Gas -
Exploration-and-production (E&P) uncertainties, on-the-books/on-the-horizon government actions concerning so-called man-made global warming and recession-fueled sluggish demand—all continue to create anxiety in the oil-and-gas industry.
What’s the most important current challenge the oil-and-gas industry faces? “Keeping jobs we have and growing the industry —and making sure we have the resources [to do that],” answers Rayola Dougher, senior economic advisor for the American Petroleum Institute (www.api.org), Washington, D.C. “There have been plans to bring on new capacity that are stalled or shelved. Refineries are cutting back operations. And there’s been a big reduction for petroleum-based fuel in the U.S.” For diesel, which Dougher calls “a good marker of the economy,” demand from Oct. 2008 to Oct. 2009 dropped 12.5 percent, she states...
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