These papers were presented at the workshop on High Performance Computing and Gigabit Wide Area Networks held in September 1998 in Essen, Germany. The aim of the workshop was to analyse the interplay between computer network technology, communication software and the performance of mathematical algorithms used for large scale computations in wide area high speed computer networks. Only through interdisciplinary research with the co-operation of electrical engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists will it be possible to determine the most efficient combinations of parallel algorithms, protocols and network hardware. This workshop brought together scientists working in computer networks, network protocols and numerical and linear algebra and new insights were gained that have previously been unattainable. This volume contains 22 refereed research articles that reflect the exciting new developments in this field.

The combination of fast, low-latency networks and high-performance, distributed tools for mathematical software has resulted in widespread, affordable scientific computing facilities. Practitioners working in the fields of computer communication networks, distributed computing, computational algebra and numerical analysis have been brought together to contribute to this volume and explore the emerging distributed and parallel technology in a scientific environment. This collection includes surveys and original research on both software infrastructure for parallel applications and hardware and architecture infrastructure. Among the topics covered are switch-based high-speed networks, ATM over local and wide area networks, network performance, application support, finite element methods, eigenvalue problems, invariant subspace decomposition, QR factorization and Todd-Coxseter coset enumeration.