SCIENCE

Wolfram Research has announced the release of Mathematica 8, the latest version of its flagship computation, development and deployment platform that introduces the breakthrough concept of linguistically-controlled computing. Integrating technology of Wolfram|Alpha, the Mathematica-powered computational knowledge engine, makes it possible to enter math or data calculations in plain English and get immediate answers or start an extensive analysis.

"Traditionally, getting computers to perform tasks requires speaking their language or using point-and-click interfaces. One requires learning syntax, the other limits scope of accessible functions," said Stephen Wolfram, CEO and founder of Wolfram Research. "Free-form linguistics understands human language and translates it into syntax -- a breakthrough in usability. Mathematica 8 is the start of this initiative, but already it is making a real difference to user productivity."

Free-form input is a new entry point into the Mathematica idea-to-deployment workflow, but Mathematica 8 adds a major new endpoint too: generation of C-code and standalone executables. Using Mathematica, organizations no longer have to rely on separate tools for prototyping and deployment, but can complete the entire workflow with one integrated tool.

"It's amazing that you can start with free-form linguistic input, model or prototype, and end up with a high-performance standalone program or library...all within Mathematica 8's comprehensive workflow," said Tom Wickham-Jones, director of Kernel Technology at Wolfram Research.

Even with these major enhancements at either end of the workflow, the most significant additions in Mathematica 8 are the more than 500 new functions in many new and extended application areas, including:

• Probability and statistics: largest collection of statistical distributions and automatic high-level solvers including parameter estimation.
   
• Software development: built-in GPU support, automatic code generation and linking, multi-core parallelism, and standalone code deployment.
   
• Engineering: integrated control systems and wavelet analysis.
   
• Graphs and networks: extensive built-in support for the new science of networks.
   
• Finance: built-in option pricing solvers, financial indicators and charts.
   
• Image processing: enhanced image analysis capabilities, such as feature detection.

"In all of these domains, you will find dramatic depth of coverage," stated Roger Germundsson, director of research & development at Wolfram Research. "The functions are designed to work together seamlessly across different domains which allows combining them in new and innovative ways."

"Rather than build individual spikes of functionality provided by traditional specialist tools, Mathematica's concept is based on building up the complete mountain range," said Conrad Wolfram, director of strategic development at Wolfram Research. "It's this broad functionality across a wide area that enabled us to build state-of-the-art application areas such as statistics and probability so quickly for Mathematica 8."

Availability

Mathematica 8 is available immediately for Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X, Linux x86, and compatible systems.