Frequently Asked Questions

What is the aim of the project?

The aim of the VIDEOS project is to provide both industrial and academic partners with a high quality computational modelling of the next generation of optoelectronic and electronic devices using state-of-the-art parallel processing and graphical Internet interfaces. During the three years of SHEFC funding the VIDEOS team in collaboration with the Computational Nonlinear Optics group at Strathclyde and the Optoelectronic Research and Device Modelling groups group at Glasgow University will develop a virtual laboratory to design and test new devices in order to accelerate the conversion from research concepts to market products in Scottish optoelectronic and electronic industries.

What sort of companies do you hope to attract to use your service?

Optoelectronic and electronic companies with research and development interests. These range from large companies with their own computer modelling teams to small and intermediate companies with no or limited modelling capabilities. Our remit from SHEFC is to provide support for the Scottish based optoelectronic and electric industries and so, initially, they will be targeted.

What do you offer?

A virtual laboratory to be accessed via Internet interfaces, where novel devices and complex systems can be assembled, simulated and optimised. The user of the VIDEOS lab may have no knowledge of numerical modelling and parallel computing: VIDEOS equipment will perform the simulations and produce the graphical output; the VIDEOS team will provide the user with support, training, documentation, remote visualisation tools and access to bundled software.

How is the project funded?

The SHEFC grant is for £650,000 while the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde provide a further £70,000 in equipment and support. The remaining £300,000 are a conservative estimate of the support provided by the Universities during the three years of the project in terms of hosting the equipment network and the VIDEOS personnel, time and expertise provided by the 9 academics and their research teams.

How many times more powerful than the average PC is the VIDEOS machine?

The machine is a Sun Enterprise 6500 (for further information see http://www.sun.com/servers/midrange/e6500/). It is a shared memory parallel computer (SMP) with 30 Ultra Sparc II processors running at 400 MHz and 30 Gbytes of memory. This is the largest computer facility in the West of Scotland and the largest computational facility entirely dedicated to optoelectronics and electronics in the UK. The use of a 30 state-of-the-art RISC processors and of optimised numerical libraries make a Sun E6500 more than 100 times faster than an average PC for problems small enough to be tackled by a PC. The real advantage of the VIDEOS machine is seen for large scale models. The larger the problem, the poorer the performance of the PC until eventually it can no longer do the calculation. Since each processor of the E6500 can access all 30 Gbytes of memory, one can tackle simulations on the VIDEOS equipment which would be otherwise impossible.

What can the Sun "Enterprise 6500" achieve?

The implementation of full 3-D models of lasers and optoelectronic devices can be achieved for the first time by using the VIDEOS facility. In the VIDEOS virtual laboratory, a group of models can also be linked to simulate a multi-element system and its electromagnetic environment.

How much does the service cost?

The grant runs till the end of October 2002. Till then the service is free although a degree of collaboration is expected. Beyond that date, we (and SHEFC) expect the project to be self-funding. We anticipate access to the service through a "club subscription".

Who works for VIDEOS?

There are three full-time scientific staff on the VIDEOS team:

Dr Iain Wallace, Research Manager
Dr Andrew Brown, Research Associate
Dr John Cowen, Research Associate

two Lead Investigators:

Dr David Hutchings, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow.
Prof Gian-Luca Oppo, Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde.

and seven Consortium Members:

Prof John Arnold, University of Glasgow
Prof Asen Asenov, University of Glasgow
Prof John Davies, University of Glasgow
Dr Scott Roy, University of Glasgow
Prof William Firth, University of Strathclyde
Dr Graeme Harkness, University of Strathclyde
Dr Richard Martin, University of Strathclyde

What simulation programs are available?

Here is a list of in-house algorithms currently being developed:

1) Full 3-D finite difference time domain codes for solving electromagnetic field problems;
2) 3-D beam propagation methods to model optical waveguides;
3) Solver of partial differential equations for lasers and other cavity based devices including beam quality assessment;
4) "Atomistic" codes to model sub-micron electronic devices;
5) Transfer matrix methods for photonic bandgap materials, etc.

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