Manifold System
Encyclopedia
Manifold System is a geographic information system
(GIS) software package developed by manifold.net that runs only on Microsoft Windows
. Manifold System handles both vector and raster data, includes spatial SQL, a built-in Internet Map Server
(IMS), and other general GIS features. Manifold System has an active user community with a mailing list and online forums.
supercomputer created in a joint venture between Intel Corporation
and the US Department of Defense. The team subsequently embarked on a plan to create and sell mathematics libraries, including the General Graph Facilities library (GGF) and the Computational Geometry
Library (CGL), under the name of the Center for Digital Algorithms.
A series of "workbench" products were created to help teach customers the operation of algorithms in the libraries using visual means. Road networks and geometric data in geographic contexts were used to provide visual familiarity and interest, in effect creating a GIS-like product. In 1997 and 1998 customers asked for a true GIS product based on the workbench products and development of Manifold System was launched. The company soon changed its name to Manifold Net to match the new product's name.
.
The Release 5.00 series in 2001 and 2002 integrated display and editing of raster images and surfaces, including terrain elevation surfaces, and both 2D and 3D rendering. The 5.x series also introduced an integrated Internet Map Server
(IMS) and the first Enterprise editions of Manifold System allowing collaboration by teams using shared components. The 5.x series also introduced a new spatial SQL and fuzzy logic using the Decision Support System.
Releases since 2003 include 5.50, 6.00 (two major feature upgrades via service pack), 6.50, 7.00 and 7x. 6.50 introduced image tiling from Terraserver
and OGC
WMS
image servers using Manifold as a client and extended IMS support to include OGC WMS when using Manifold as a server. 7.00 further extended IMS to include OGC WFS-T and image server functionality as well.
Release 7.00 was issued in May 2006 and followed up by Release 7x in the next three months. 7x was released in two flavors: 32-bit and 64-bit.
Release 7.00 introduced direct support for Oracle Spatial
(vector drawings, raster images and raster surfaces) and included concurrent multiuser editing capability for Oracle and a variety of other databases, including DB2
and Microsoft SQL Server
. 7.00 introduced multiprocessor support with multithreaded rendering of image libraries, multithreaded connections to DBMS providers and use of multiple processors in other areas as well.
7.00 also introduced the Manifold Image Server interface API, allowing users to create modules that enable usage within Manifold of image servers such as Virtual Earth
, Google Maps
, Yahoo, Ask
and others. Open source image server modules have been published by the user community in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions that enable automatic fetching and tiling of either satellite images or street map images from various image servers.
Release 8.00 was issued in the summer of 2007 and introduced 420 improvements. 8.00 expanded support for direct use of spatial DBMS beyond Oracle to include IBM DB2 with Spatial Extender, PostgreSQL / PostGIS and pre-releases of Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 spatial product available in 2007. 8.00 also introduced a Manifold-written spatial extender for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as well as generic spatial DBMS capability from Manifold enabling spatial DBMS storage of vectors and rasters in any DBMS providing binary storage capability.
Release 8.00 became the first GIS product to include support for NVIDIA CUDA
technology, in which massively-parallel architectures utilized in NVIDIA GPU cards, employing up to hundreds of stream processors per card, can be utilized to execute general purpose GIS code for computations on rasters. Typical speed increases when using NVIDIA CUDA reduce the time required for complex surface calculations in Manifold from minutes to seconds. For its use of NVIDIA CUDA Manifold System won the 2008 Geospatial Innovator Award at the GeoTec 2008 conference.
8.00 was updated through 2008 to improve support for PostgreSQL/PostGIS, to support final production releases of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and to support new Windows releases through Windows Server 2008 x64..
The online Georeference forum was started by David Brubacher and William Howell in 2004 and incorporated into the manifold.net site in January 2006 at http://forum.manifold.net
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
(GIS) software package developed by manifold.net that runs only on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. Manifold System handles both vector and raster data, includes spatial SQL, a built-in Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server provide maps through the Internet usually as images. One standard specification for such a server is the OGC Web Map Service....
(IMS), and other general GIS features. Manifold System has an active user community with a mailing list and online forums.
History
The development team for Manifold was created in 1993 to optimize mathematics libraries for a massively-parallelMassively parallel
Massively parallel is a description which appears in computer science, life sciences, medical diagnostics, and other fields.A massively parallel computer is a distributed memory computer system which consists of many individual nodes, each of which is essentially an independent computer in itself,...
supercomputer created in a joint venture between Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...
and the US Department of Defense. The team subsequently embarked on a plan to create and sell mathematics libraries, including the General Graph Facilities library (GGF) and the Computational Geometry
Computational geometry
Computational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the study of algorithms which can be stated in terms of geometry. Some purely geometrical problems arise out of the study of computational geometric algorithms, and such problems are also considered to be part of computational...
Library (CGL), under the name of the Center for Digital Algorithms.
A series of "workbench" products were created to help teach customers the operation of algorithms in the libraries using visual means. Road networks and geometric data in geographic contexts were used to provide visual familiarity and interest, in effect creating a GIS-like product. In 1997 and 1998 customers asked for a true GIS product based on the workbench products and development of Manifold System was launched. The company soon changed its name to Manifold Net to match the new product's name.
Manifold System releases
Manifold System was first sold in January 1998 as Release 3.00. Releases 3.00 and 4.00 were heavily weighted to analytics, with many tools for abstract graph theory analysis but a very limited GIS toolset. At the request of GIS users and resellers, Release 4.50 emphasized general GIS features of broader interest and emerged as Manifold's first commercial GIS, a typical vector GIS more or less equivalent to classic vector GIS packages such as ArcView 3.x or MapInfo ProfessionalMapInfo Professional
MapInfo Professional is a mapping software product produced by MapInfo Corporation.MapInfo Professional has the ability to combine and display, on a single map, data from a variety of sources that are in different formats and projections...
.
The Release 5.00 series in 2001 and 2002 integrated display and editing of raster images and surfaces, including terrain elevation surfaces, and both 2D and 3D rendering. The 5.x series also introduced an integrated Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server provide maps through the Internet usually as images. One standard specification for such a server is the OGC Web Map Service....
(IMS) and the first Enterprise editions of Manifold System allowing collaboration by teams using shared components. The 5.x series also introduced a new spatial SQL and fuzzy logic using the Decision Support System.
Releases since 2003 include 5.50, 6.00 (two major feature upgrades via service pack), 6.50, 7.00 and 7x. 6.50 introduced image tiling from Terraserver
TerraServer
Terraserver refers to one of two databases for viewing geospatial imagery:* Terraserver.com, a commercial web site operated by TerraServer.com, Inc. of Raleigh, North Carolina....
and OGC
OGC
OGC may refer to:* Oculogyric crisis, a dystonic reaction to certain drugs and/or medical conditions* Office of Government Commerce, a department of the government of the United Kingdom...
WMS
WMS
-Technology and computing:*Warehouse management system, a component of the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse*Web Map Service, a specification which comprises a definition for Internet map servers...
image servers using Manifold as a client and extended IMS support to include OGC WMS when using Manifold as a server. 7.00 further extended IMS to include OGC WFS-T and image server functionality as well.
Release 7.00 was issued in May 2006 and followed up by Release 7x in the next three months. 7x was released in two flavors: 32-bit and 64-bit.
Release 7.00 introduced direct support for Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial forms a separately-licensed option component of the Oracle Database. Oracle Spatial aids users in managing geographic and location-data in a native type within an Oracle database, potentially supporting a wide range of applications — from automated mapping/facilities-management and...
(vector drawings, raster images and raster surfaces) and included concurrent multiuser editing capability for Oracle and a variety of other databases, including DB2
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
and Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
. 7.00 introduced multiprocessor support with multithreaded rendering of image libraries, multithreaded connections to DBMS providers and use of multiple processors in other areas as well.
7.00 also introduced the Manifold Image Server interface API, allowing users to create modules that enable usage within Manifold of image servers such as Virtual Earth
Virtual earth
Virtual earth may refer to:* Virtual ground - the node of an electrical circuit that is maintained at a steady reference potential, without being connected directly to the reference potential....
, Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
, Yahoo, Ask
Ask
Ask may refer to:* The active verb for a direct question, .In places:* Ask, Akershus in Gjerdrum municipality, Akershus, Norway* Ask, Hordaland in Askøy municipality, Hordaland, Norway...
and others. Open source image server modules have been published by the user community in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions that enable automatic fetching and tiling of either satellite images or street map images from various image servers.
Release 8.00 was issued in the summer of 2007 and introduced 420 improvements. 8.00 expanded support for direct use of spatial DBMS beyond Oracle to include IBM DB2 with Spatial Extender, PostgreSQL / PostGIS and pre-releases of Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 spatial product available in 2007. 8.00 also introduced a Manifold-written spatial extender for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as well as generic spatial DBMS capability from Manifold enabling spatial DBMS storage of vectors and rasters in any DBMS providing binary storage capability.
Release 8.00 became the first GIS product to include support for NVIDIA CUDA
CUDA
CUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
technology, in which massively-parallel architectures utilized in NVIDIA GPU cards, employing up to hundreds of stream processors per card, can be utilized to execute general purpose GIS code for computations on rasters. Typical speed increases when using NVIDIA CUDA reduce the time required for complex surface calculations in Manifold from minutes to seconds. For its use of NVIDIA CUDA Manifold System won the 2008 Geospatial Innovator Award at the GeoTec 2008 conference.
8.00 was updated through 2008 to improve support for PostgreSQL/PostGIS, to support final production releases of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and to support new Windows releases through Windows Server 2008 x64..
User community
Later versions have benefited greatly from community involvement via online discussion and beta testing. From July 2002 to July 2006 over 3771 new items have been cited in release notes, most of which originated in the user community.The online Georeference forum was started by David Brubacher and William Howell in 2004 and incorporated into the manifold.net site in January 2006 at http://forum.manifold.net
External links
- http://www.manifold.net - the Manifold.net website.
- http://lists.directionsmag.com/discussion/list.php?f=29 - the Manifold-L mailing list on Directions Magazine.
- http://forum.manifold.net - the online forum dedicated to Manifold System.
- http://galvarezhn.cartesianos.com/category/manifold/ - Spanish site with topics about Manifold System.
- http://www.manipedia.eu/index.php?title=Main_Page
- American Surveyor review
- Directions Magazine review
- ISP-Planet review