PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION IDENTIFIES MORE THAN 250 FUNCTIONS FOR STANDARDIZATION

Main Menu | News By Date | News By Supplier | News By Category | About Us

PRELIMINARY TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION IDENTIFIES MORE THAN 250 FUNCTIONS FOR STANDARDIZATION
13 January 2006 - National Instruments Corporation (UK)

The Numerical Mathematics Consortium today announced the availability of its preliminary technical specification, which outlines a list of more than 250 numerical mathematical functions the consortium plans to standardize. The consortium identified these functions in an effort to define an open mathematics semantics standard for numerical algorithm development that enables portability and reuse among tools, platforms and disciplines.

The consortium, comprising leading mathematics software vendors and interested individuals from industry and academia, has identified this core set of mathematical functions applicable to numeric algorithms with an emphasis on matrix computations. These more than 250 functions are grouped under the following 14 classes: approximation, integration and interpolation; Boolean functions; relational operators; elementary functions; linear algebra; math constants; matrix generation; matrix operators; membership functions; polynomial functions; set operators; special functions; statistic functions; and vector analysis.

The Numerical Mathematics Consortium was established to create a standard specification for numeric mathematics that ensures algorithm portability across platforms and enables compatibility among applications through standardizing core mathematical definitions, algorithm interchangeability and function semantics. The organization's objective is to create a specification that defines a core mathematical function set applicable to numeric algorithms. Algorithms that meet the specification can be used in a wide variety of application areas such as industrial control, embedded design and scientific research, as well as be easily reused by researchers and developers in industry and academia.

Founding members of the Numerical Mathematics Consortium include INRIA (Scilab Publisher), Maplesoft, Mathsoft and National Instruments. Numerous individuals from leading industry and academic institutions are supporting the consortium in both membership and advisory roles to provide review and guidance on the development of these technical standards.

"The Numerical Mathematics Consortium has accomplished an important step by identifying the function categories and the core functions in each category to standardize, based on usage across a wide variety of applications," said Dr. Robert H. Bishop, professor and chairman of the University of Texas Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. "This sets a strong foundation for the consortium to accomplish the next phase of its mission, to standardize the semantic definitions of these core functions. The Numerical Mathematics Consortium's efforts will have a large impact in overcoming the current lack of compatibility across multiple numeric math tools and facilitate ease of algorithm reuse."

Vendors and individuals interested in reviewing the preliminary specification of core mathematical functions applicable to numeric algorithms can visit the Numerical Mathematics Consortium Web site at www.nmconsortium.org. Membership is open to all and highly recommended to those who wish to participate actively and influence the specification.

http://www.ni.com

About: National Instruments Corporation (UK)
National Instruments is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation – a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Utilising the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,100 employees and direct operations in 41 countries. In 2003, the company sold products to more than 25,000 companies in 90 countries. For the past five years, FORTUNE magazine named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.

More News:
  • For January 2006
  • From National Instruments Corporation (UK)
  • For Virtual Instrumentation