Paul Boughton
Wolfram Research is releasing Mathematica 7, a major new version of this maths software package that is said to accelerate the drive to integrate and automate functionality as core Mathematica capabilities, adding image processing, parallel high-performance computing (HPC), new on-demand curated data, and other recently developed computational innovations. In total there are over 500 new functions and 12 application areas.
Stephen Wolfram, president and CEO of Wolfram Research, states: "Mathematica 7 is a remarkable achievement - coming so quickly after Mathematica 6, and successfully integrating so many new areas."
Roger Germundsson, director of research and development at Wolfram Research, comments: "Throughout the history of Mathematica, we have followed the principle of deep integration - of building everything into the core system, and carefully designing it to fit together. With every version of Mathematica, we are seeing more and more payoff from this approach. It seems as if deep integration is letting our R&D teams use Mathematica to achieve an almost exponential development trajectory for the product.
"Mathematica 7 drives functionality integration. Whether it is parallel computing, image analysis or visual solving, the principle is the same: include it in the core product and add automation both for performance and productivity."
Image processing is one key addition. Industrial-strength, high-performance functions for image composition, transformation, enhancement and segmentation combine with the existing Mathematica infrastructure of high-level language, automated interface construction, interactive notebook documents and computational power to create a versatile image processing tool.
Peter Overmann, director of software technology at Wolfram, says: "The image processing environment of Mathematica 7 has been designed from the ground up to become the system of choice for imaging research and applications in science, engineering, medicine, and education.
"This is only the start of our image processing initiative. Allied to Mathematica's other functionality, it is already very powerful. We have a modern foundation, and we will continue to build on it."
Built-in parallel computing is another key new area of integration in Mathematica 7 (and the company claims this is a first in the field of technical computing). Every copy of Mathematica (as well as the Mathematica Player Pro 7 deployment platform) now comes as standard with the technology to parallelise computations over multiple cores or over networks of Mathematica deployed across a grid. Every copy of Mathematica 7 comes with four computation processes included. More processes as well as network capabilities can be added easily. Parallel computing is an important next step in increasing technical computing performance because all computers are becoming multicore.
Tom Wickham-Jones, Wolfram's director of kernel technology, says: "Mathematica's single-core performance is already top class. Seamlessly parallelising computations - as enabled by Mathematica 7 - steps up performance with little user effort."
Conrad Wolfram, director of strategic and international development, adds: "Quad-core computers are now commonplace, and we wanted everyone to have immediate access to their power. No separate installation, no wondering whether that Mathematica license is parallel-enabled. It is there every time."
Other areas of innovation in Mathematica 7 include: charting and information visualisation; vector field visualisation; comprehensive spline support, including NURBS; industrial-strength Boolean computation; statistical model analysis; integrated geodesy and GIS data; and many symbolic computation breakthroughs, including discrete calculus, sequence recognition, and transcendental roots
Mathematica 7 is available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux x86, Solaris UltraSPARC/x86, and compatible systems.
For more information, visit www.wolfram.com/mathematica
Stephen Wolfram, president and CEO of Wolfram Research, states: "Mathematica 7 is a remarkable achievement - coming so quickly after Mathematica 6, and successfully integrating so many new areas."
Roger Germundsson, director of research and development at Wolfram Research, comments: "Throughout the history of Mathematica, we have followed the principle of deep integration - of building everything into the core system, and carefully designing it to fit together. With every version of Mathematica, we are seeing more and more payoff from this approach. It seems as if deep integration is letting our R&D teams use Mathematica to achieve an almost exponential development trajectory for the product.
"Mathematica 7 drives functionality integration. Whether it is parallel computing, image analysis or visual solving, the principle is the same: include it in the core product and add automation both for performance and productivity."
Image processing is one key addition. Industrial-strength, high-performance functions for image composition, transformation, enhancement and segmentation combine with the existing Mathematica infrastructure of high-level language, automated interface construction, interactive notebook documents and computational power to create a versatile image processing tool.
Peter Overmann, director of software technology at Wolfram, says: "The image processing environment of Mathematica 7 has been designed from the ground up to become the system of choice for imaging research and applications in science, engineering, medicine, and education.
"This is only the start of our image processing initiative. Allied to Mathematica's other functionality, it is already very powerful. We have a modern foundation, and we will continue to build on it."
Built-in parallel computing is another key new area of integration in Mathematica 7 (and the company claims this is a first in the field of technical computing). Every copy of Mathematica (as well as the Mathematica Player Pro 7 deployment platform) now comes as standard with the technology to parallelise computations over multiple cores or over networks of Mathematica deployed across a grid. Every copy of Mathematica 7 comes with four computation processes included. More processes as well as network capabilities can be added easily. Parallel computing is an important next step in increasing technical computing performance because all computers are becoming multicore.
Tom Wickham-Jones, Wolfram's director of kernel technology, says: "Mathematica's single-core performance is already top class. Seamlessly parallelising computations - as enabled by Mathematica 7 - steps up performance with little user effort."
Conrad Wolfram, director of strategic and international development, adds: "Quad-core computers are now commonplace, and we wanted everyone to have immediate access to their power. No separate installation, no wondering whether that Mathematica license is parallel-enabled. It is there every time."
Other areas of innovation in Mathematica 7 include: charting and information visualisation; vector field visualisation; comprehensive spline support, including NURBS; industrial-strength Boolean computation; statistical model analysis; integrated geodesy and GIS data; and many symbolic computation breakthroughs, including discrete calculus, sequence recognition, and transcendental roots
Mathematica 7 is available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux x86, Solaris UltraSPARC/x86, and compatible systems.
For more information, visit www.wolfram.com/mathematica
