The SSD is a part of the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics (Computing Center) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Computing Center of SB RAS is located in Siberian Scientific Center, that has been created near the city of Novosibirsk in the late 50s, also known as "Academgorodok" ("Academic Village"). Initially it was conceived as a complex Cybernetic Centre, where the applied research in different areas would be supported by the leading development of mathematics and computer science. During the 60s and 70s such distinguished scientists as Sergey Sobolev, Leonid Kantorovich, Alexey Lyapunov, Andrey Ershov, and others have been working in the Academgorodok. In retrospect, we can state now, without exaggeration, beginning from the early 60s the Russian research in parallel computing has been concentrated in Siberia.asd

The SSD was founded on April 1, 1987 as the integration of the laboratory of Computer System Software (N.Mirenkov) and of the research group for Parallel Program Synthesis (V.Malyshkin). The first head of the SSD was N.Mirenkov (till April 1993). The laboratory of Computer System Software was a part of the Computer Systems department at the Institute of Mathematics RAS where the research of homogeneous multiprocessors systems have been carried out since the early sixties (prof. E.Evreinov). The research group for Parallel Program Synthesis was a part of the department for Computing Structure and Processes (Prof. V.Kotov) at the Computing Center RAS, where the investigations of asynchronous computations have been studying from the early sixties too (Profs. A.Ershov, V.Kotov). The integration was aimed at a new project intended for investigation and development of large-block multiprocessor systems (architecture, parallel system software and solution of big size problems) for different applications, first of all in the seismic data processing area. As an issue the multiprocessor system SIBERIA has been developed, some details are presented in the proceedings of the International conference on Parallel Computing Technologies (PaCT-91) (Novosibirsk, September 7-11,1991. World Scientific, Singapore). See also the paper on Parallel Computing in Russia by Ya. Fet and D. Pospelov.

The SSD performs the complex study of diversified fields of parallel computer science. We are mantaining this diversity and encourage the researches in various directions to provide the "critical mass" of results which are necessary to develop progressive computing technologies. It is in parallel computing technology that the newest results of the scientific investigations and practical experience are combined. As every pragmatic activity the parallel computing technologies demand a complex approach to be realized well enough. It is necessary here to bear in mind that Computing Centre is a huge complex institute. It consists of 11 departments (from 2 to 6 laboratories):

1. pure geophysics,
2. applied geophysics,
3. mathematical modelling of atmosphere and ocean processes,
4. mathematical modelling of hydrodynamics processes
5. statistic modelling in physics
6. mathematical problems of physics and chemistry,
7. image processing,
8. design automation and computer graphics,
9. mathematical modelling of informatic systems,
10. telecommunication systems
11. supercomputer software.

One of the SSD aims is to support the research work of these departments by parallel computing technologies. The problems of these departments are the basic source of our applications. Our research is concentrated in the following fields:

• formal models of parallel computations,
• parallel architectures,
• parallel languages and systems,
• parallel program synthesis,
• organization of parallel computation on MIMD architectures,
• parallel solution of large size problems,
• cellular computations.

The SSD supports good partnership with different research Institutions in Russia and over the world. Among the best partners we can list

• Novosibirsk National Research State University
• Novosibirsk State Technical University
• Institute of Informatics Systems RAS
• Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics RAS
• Institute of Computational Modeling RAS
• Institute of Applied Mathematical Research of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Electrotechnical University of St.-Petersburg
• Research Institute KVANT (Moscow)
• State Technical University of St.-Petersburg
• Petrozavodsk State University
• Sochi State University
• Institute de Mechanique des Fluides (Marseille, France)
• ONERA/CERT (Toulouse)
• IBP-LITP University Paris 7 Denis Diderot (France)
• University of Milano (Italy)
• University of Pisa (Italy)
• University of Iwate (Japan)
• University of Aizu (Japan)

Novosibirsk State Technical University established the Department of Parallel Computing Technologies and Novosibirsk State University established the Department of Parallel Computing. Staff members of the Departments are recruited among the staff members of the SSD. This is a special form of education organization in Russia intended, on one side, to involve active researchers of RAS in teaching of modern disciplins, and to provide for students an access to modern equipment and technologies concentrated in research institutes of RAS. Every year our unversity departments offer up to 5-7 Master programmes and about the same number of Ph.D. programmes in parallel Computer Science.