Subject: New GENESIS version 1.4
From:    Jim Bower <jbower@smaug.bbb.caltech.edu>
Date:    Sun, 12 Sep 93 19:04:45 -0800


This is to announce the availability of a new release of the GENESIS
simulator.  This version (ver. 1.4.1, August 1993) is greatly improved from
the previous public release (ver. 1.1, July 1990).

Description:

        GENESIS (GEneral NEural SImulation System) 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.  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.
GENESIS and its graphical front-end XODUS are written in C and run on SUN
and DEC graphics work stations under UNIX (Sun version 4.0 and up, Ultrix
3.1, 4.0 and up), and X-windows (versions X11R3, X11R4, and X11R5).  The
current version of GENESIS has also been used with Silicon Graphics (Irix
4.0.1 and up) and the HP 700 series (HPUX).  The distribution includes full
source code and documentation for both GENESIS and XODUS as well as fourteen
demonstration and tutorial simulations.  Documentation for these simulations
is included, along with three papers that describe the general organization
of the simulator.  The distributed compressed tar file is about 3 MB in size.

In addition to sample simulations which demonstrate the construction of
neural simulations, the new GENESIS release contains a number of interactive
tutorials for teaching concepts in neurobiology and realistic neural
modeling.  As their use requires no knowldge of GENESIS programming, they
are suitable for use in a computer simulation laboratory which would
accompany upper division undergraduate and graduate neuroscience courses,or
for self-study.  Each of these has on-line help and a number of suggested
exercises or "experiments".  These tutorials may also be taken apart and
modified to create your own simulations, as several of them are derived from
recent research simulations.

The following papers give further information about GENESIS:
   Wilson, M. A., Bhalla, U. S., Uhley, J. D., and Bower, J. M. (1989)
   GENESIS:  A system for simulating neural networks. In: Advances in Neural
   Information Processing Systems. D. Touretzky, editor. Morgan Kaufmann,
   San Mateo, CA. pp. 485-492

   Matthew A. Wilson and James M. Bower, "The Simulation of Large-Scale
   Neural Networks", in Methods in Neuronal Modeling, Christof Koch and Idan
   Segev, editors. (MIT Press, 1989)

Acquiring GENESIS via free FTP distribution:

        GENESIS may be obtained via FTP from genesis.cns.caltech.edu
(131.215.137.64).  As this is a large software package, please read the
above description to determine if GENESIS is likely to be suitable for your
purposes before you follow this procedure.  To acquire the software use
'telnet' to connect to genesis.cns.caltech.edu and login as the user
"genesis" (no password required).  If you answer all the questions asked of
you an 'ftp' account will automatically be created for you.  You can then
'ftp' back to the machine and download the software.  Further inquiries
concerning GENESIS may be addressed to genesis@cns.caltech.edu.