In brief

UGS will supply Rolls-Royce with computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing applications for its Trent 1000 and TP400 new engine projects. Also, Saab Aerosystems has invested in 1,000 licenses of UGSTeamcenter Aerospace and Defense, to enable global program and team collaboration. More than 100 simulation engineers at DaimlerChrysler sites in Germany will use UGS's NX Nastran, computer-aided engineering software.

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee was named recipient of the first-ever Millennium Technology Prize, bestowed by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. Berners created the first server, browser, and protocols central to the operation of the Web: the URL address, HTTP transmission protocol, and HTML code. "The Web has significantly enhanced many people's ability to obtain information central to their lives," said Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the award selection committee.

The Interconnect Transport Application Programming Interface (IT-API)—developed by the Interconnect Software Consortium, a forum of The Open Group—provides an open programming interface for remote direct memory access applications (RDMA) that is both inter-connect independent and enables "pedal-to-the-metal" performance. "This is a key building block for server I/O," said Audrey Helffrich, IBM Distinguished Engineer. "And will pave the way for a whole host of application exploitation opportunities."