Visual Numerics® Announces Availability of PyIMSL™ Studio

Ensures that numerical prototype work is included in production applications faster and with less complexity, cost and risk

HOUSTON, TX – February 10, 2009 -- Today, Visual Numerics, Inc., a 38-year producer of advanced numerical analysis and visualization software announced the immediate availability of PyIMSL Studio, the first commercially-available numerical analysis prototyping environment designed for deploying mathematics and statistics models into production applications.

In a recent Visual Numerics survey, more than 60% of respondents said that they create prototype models before developing code for production applications. The vast majority of respondents also indicated that their organization uses multiple numerical analysis tools for prototyping. Today modelers and developers are using different tool sets in the prototyping and production stages of development causing significant challenges in moving numerical prototypes into production use. This problem causes development teams to spend enormous amounts of time developing equivalent algorithms to those used in prototype models. These challenges can cause a significant gap in terms of cost, resources, and risk between modeling a numerical prototype and deploying that numerical model into production.

PyIMSL Studio solves this problem of a prototype to production gap by combining prototyping tools in the popular Python dynamic language with the world class IMSL® C Numerical Library. Now the IMSL C Library can be leveraged throughout the entire development process so that the same mathematical and statistical algorithms can be used throughout prototyping and production application development and then deployed on more than 50 computing environments. Customers estimate that development time can be significantly reduced if modelers and developers use the same underlying algorithms.

In addition to the comprehensive IMSL C Library math and statistical algorithms, PyIMSL Studio also provides robust Python development tools for rapid prototyping.  These Python tools are integrated into a single installable and supported package and include NumPy for data array manipulation, matplotlib charting components, GUI development tools, Pydev with Eclipse and IPython IDEs, data I/O and transformation components and other tools. Extensive documentation provides a complete API for the math and statistics functions, tutorials, and details for implementation teams to quickly and easily make prototype models part of production applications.

“By supporting popular Python tools and delivering the same algorithms in prototyping and production stages, PyIMSL Studio extends our IMSL Numerical Library capabilities from development and implementation teams to a new group of numerical modelers,” said Margaret Journey, Director of Product Management, Visual Numerics. “By using the same underlying algorithms and robust Python tools, organizations can remove complexity, time and cost from transforming prototype models into world-class analytic applications. Companies can have confidence that there is a commercial organization supporting the algorithms and Python prototyping package as part of the PyIMSL Studio product.”

Availability & Pricing

PyIMSL Studio is available now. Modelers using PyIMSL Studio write prototypes using Python 2.5 in Windows (32-bit) and Linux (32- and 64-bit) environments. NumPy, matplotlib, Eclipse and other tools are included in the PyIMSL Studio development environment. Developers taking prototype models to production in C/C++ using the IMSL C Library have an extensive list of supported computing platforms to choose from for production applications.

PyIMSL Studio pricing starts at $3,995. An introductory offer until June 30, 2009 is $3,695. Upgrade pricing for current IMSL C Library customers is $1,300 with an introductory offer of $995 until June 30, 2009.

About Visual Numerics, Inc.

Visual Numerics has provided technical software solutions for numerical analysis and visualization for more than three decades.  The company's software products help users understand complex data from a variety of sources and build business-critical applications. Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL® Numerical Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and the PV-WAVE® visual data analysis development environment.  Visual Numerics also offers consulting services for applications that involve mathematical, statistical, or visual data analysis to meet today's business analytical needs.

Major corporations, academic institutions, and research laboratories worldwide use Visual Numerics' software tools, including such high profile companies as SAP, Teradata, Barclays Global Investors, Humana, Sandia National Laboratories, and Boeing Company.  This large and diverse customer base is supported through a direct sales force, wholly owned international subsidiaries, and international distributors.  For more information about Visual Numerics, please visit www.vni.com or register for quarterly updates at www.vni.com/enews.

###