GENESIS 2.0

[Jim Bower]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is to announce the release of GENESIS 2.0, a major revison of the
GENESIS simulator.

GENESIS is a general purpose simulation platform which was
developed to support the simulation of neural systems ranging from complex
models of single neurons to simulations of large networks made up of more
abstract neuronal components.  GENESIS has provided the basis for laboratory
courses in neural simulation at both Caltech and the Marine Biological
Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, as well as several other institutions.  Most
current GENESIS applications involve realistic simulations of biological
neural systems.  Although the software can also model more abstract
networks, other simulators are more suitable for backpropagation and similar
connectionist modeling.

The current version of GENESIS and its graphical front-end XODUS are written
in C and run under UNIX on Sun (SunOS 4.x or Solaris 2.x), DECstation
(Ultrix), Silicon Graphics (Irix 4.0.1 and up) or x86 PC (Linux or FreeBSD)
machines with X-windows (versions X11R4, X11R5, and X11R6).  Within the next
two months, we expect to complete the port of GENESIS to DEC Alphas (OSF1 v2
and v3), IBM RS6000s (AIX) and HPs (HPUX).  Other platforms may be capable
of running GENESIS, but the software has not been tested by Caltech outside
of these environments.

The GENESIS ftp site also contains the first release of Parallel GENESIS,
designed for networks of workstations (NOW), symmetric multiprocessors
(SMP) and massively parallel processors (MPP).  This release is known
to run on SGI/Irix and has run on these workstations: Sun4/Solaris,
Alpha/OSF1.3, DecStation/Ultrix4.3, Sun4/SunOS.  It has run on these
SMPs: SGI-Challenge/Irix 5.3, Sun4MP/Solaris.  It will soon be ported
to the Cray T3D/E MPP and later to Intel Paragon and IBM SP2 MPPs.

GENESIS 2.0 also now runs on 486 and Pentium PC's under Linux
and FreeBSD. 

In addition to these extensions, 2.0 includes a number of changes and
improvements in the source code for portability, stablity, and consistency. 
Numerous changes in the GENESIS objects also add flexibility, especially
when constructing network simulations.  In addition, the XODUS 
graphical interface has been completely rewritten and is now
independent of the Athena widget set. This allows greater interaction 
with simulations using the mouse (rescaling of graphs by click and drag,
restructuring of simulation elements with drag and drop operations, etc.). 
A script converter is included which translates GENESIS 1 scripts to 

GENESIS 2.  The GENESIS 2.0 release also includes updates of the 
simulation scripts for all tutorials  and examples used in ``The Book 
of GENESIS'' (see below).  This release includes a completely revised 
and expanded manual and on-line help.
 
Acquiring GENESIS via free FTP distribution:

    We have made the current release of GENESIS (ver. 2.0, August 1995)
available via FTP from genesis.bbb.caltech.edu (131.215.5.249).  The
distributed compressed tar file is about 3 MB in size.  The current
distribution includes full source code and documentation for both GENESIS
and XODUS as well as fourteen tutorial simulations.  Documentation for these
tutorials is included along with online GENESIS help files and postscript
files for generating the newly revised printed manual.

To acquire the software use 'ftp' to connect to genesis.bbb.caltech.edu and
login as the user "anonymous", giving your full email address as the
password.  You can then 'cd /pub/genesis' and download the software.  Be
sure to download the files LATEST.NEWS and README for information about new
features of the current GENESIS version, the files on the system, and
installation instructions.

A detailed guide to the GENESIS neuroscience tutorials and to the
construction of GENESIS simulations is given in:

   The Book of GENESIS: Exploring Realistic Neural Models with the GEneral
   NEural SImulation System, by James M. Bower and David Beeman, published by
   TELOS/Springer-Verlag -- ISBN 0-387-94019-7

For ordering information, contact info at telospub.com, or phone (in the US)
1-800-777-4643.

BABEL - GENESIS users group

Serious users of GENESIS are advised to join the users group, BABEL.
Members of BABEL are entitled to access the BABEL directories and email
newsgroup.  These are used as a repository for the latest contributions by
GENESIS users and developers.  These include new simulations, libraries of
cells and channels, additional simulator components, new documentation and
tutorials, bug reports and fixes, and the posting of questions and hints for
setting up GENESIS simulations.  As the results of GENESIS research

simulations are published, many of these simulations are being made
available through BABEL.  New developments are announced in a newsletter
which is sent by email to all members.  Members are able to access the BABEL
directories and transfer files to and from their host machines using a
passworded ftp account.

Inquiries concerning GENESIS should be addressed to
genesis at bbb.caltech.edu.  Inquiries concerning BABEL memberships should be
sent to babel at bbb.caltech.edu.  Other information concerning GENESIS,
including "snapshots" of GENESIS simulations and descriptions of research
which has been conducted with GENESIS may be found on the GENESIS World Wide
Web Server:  http://www.bbb.caltech.edu/GENESIS