Wolfram Research Announces Mathematica 4

Breakthrough Technology Adds New Speed in Ideas-to-Results Computing Environment

May 19, 1999--Mathematica 4, the latest release of Wolfram Research, Inc.'s award-winning technical computing system, combines extraordinary calculating abilities with a comprehensive collection of visualization and technical publishing tools--all in a single, elegant environment.

Mathematica 4 unveils new capabilities including additional mathematical functions, spell checking with an extensive scientific vocabulary, and enhanced tools for both traditional and web publishing. The combination of fast new internal algorithms, increased capabilities for importing And exporting, and new document-processing features make Mathematica 4 ideal for final simulations as well as prototyping--a complete ideas-to-results computing environment.

Mathematica 4 is the first release under Wolfram Research's multi-year "gigaNumerics" R&D program to create an optimized infrastructure enabling very large calculations without penalizing smaller ones. An ordinary PC or Macintosh can now handle operations on large numerical matrices--with a million or more elements--and perform calculations with million-digit accuracy.

Key features in Mathematica 4 include:

• Extensive enhancements in speed and efficiency
• Direct import and export from over 20 standard data, graphics, and sound file formats
• Spell checking and hyphenation in the notebook interface
• Extended HTML and TeX output capabilities
• Extended range and improved functions for data analysis
• Support for handling computations in specified algebraic domains
• Network license management availability on all platforms
• Over 100 new or enhanced Mathematica functions

Wolfram Research has focused on developing a process for implementing new technology into Mathematica so that the system stays consistent over time and is a stable foundation for future development. This technology makes it easy for users to get up and running with the new version without sacrificing their previous work.

"As always, our new version of Mathematica is fully compatible with the previous version, and in fact, Mathematica 4 is able to run nearly every Mathematica program written since the release of the first version over a decade ago," says Roger Germundsson, Director of Research and Development. "Mathematica 4 has been extensively tested both internally and externally; by now, it has gone through our comprehensive test suites well over a thousand times."

"Every major version of Mathematica that we’ve released has made a whole new class of applications possible. Mathematica 4 is no exception," says Stephen Wolfram, noted scientist and president and CEO of Wolfram Research. "As a major user of Mathematica myself, I’m very excited by the new level of calculations that are now possible after just the first stage of our gigaNumerics initiative."

Mathematica 4’s suggested retail price is $1495 for commercial licenses and includes Stephen Wolfram’s The Mathematica Book, Fourth Edition. Upgrade, academic, network, and site license discounts are available, and a student edition of Mathematica 4 will be released this summer. For more product details, see www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/newin4.

Mathematica customers who subscribe to Premier Service will have their Version 4 upgrade automatically shipped to them--one of the many benefits of the Premier Service program. Purchases for Mathematica, Premier Service, and other Wolfram Research products may be made online at the Wolfram Research web site or from authorized Mathematica resellers.