Hi All, On behalf of the NumPy team I am pleased to announce the release of NumPy 1.20.0rc2. This NumPy release is the largest to date, containing some 670 merged pull requests contributed by 184 people. See the list of highlights below. The Python versions supported for this release are 3.7-3.9, support for Python 3.6 has been dropped. Wheels can be downloaded from PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/numpy/1.20.0rc2/>; source archives, release notes, and wheel hashes are available on Github <https://github.com/numpy/numpy/releases/tag/v1.20.0rc2>. Linux users will need pip >= 0.19.3 in order to install manylinux2010 and manylinux2014 wheels. *Highlights* - Annotations for NumPy functions. This work is ongoing and improvements can be expected pending feedback from users. - Wider use of SIMD to increase execution speed of ufuncs. Much work has been done in introducing universal functions that will ease use of modern features across different hardware platforms. This work is ongoing. - Preliminary work in changing the dtype and casting implementations in order to provide an easier path to extending dtypes. This work is ongoing but enough has been done to allow experimentation and feedback. - Extensive documentation improvements comprising some 185 PR merges. This work is ongoing and part of the larger project to improve NumPy's online presence and usefulness to new users. - Further cleanups related to removing Python 2.7. This improves code readability and removes technical debt. - Preliminary support for the upcoming Cython 3.0. *Contributors* A total of 184 people contributed to this release. People with a "+" by their names contributed a patch for the first time. * Aaron Meurer + * Abhilash Barigidad + * Abhinav Reddy + * Abhishek Singh + * Al-Baraa El-Hag + * Albert Villanova del Moral + * Alex Leontiev + * Alex Rockhill + * Alex Rogozhnikov * Alexander Belopolsky * Alexander Kuhn-Regnier + * Allen Downey + * Andras Deak * Andrea Olivo + * Andrew Eckart + * Anirudh Subramanian * Anthony Byuraev + * Antonio Larrosa + * Ashutosh Singh + * Bangcheng Yang + * Bas van Beek + * Ben Derrett + * Ben Elliston + * Ben Nathanson + * Bernie Gray + * Bharat Medasani + * Bharat Raghunathan * Bijesh Mohan + * Bradley Dice + * Brandon David + * Brandt Bucher * Brian Soto + * Brigitta Sipocz * Cameron Blocker + * Carl Leake + * Charles Harris * Chris Brown + * Chris Vavaliaris + * Christoph Gohlke * Chunlin Fang * CloseChoice + * Daniel G. A. Smith + * Daniel Hrisca * Daniel Vanzo + * David Pitchford + * Davide Dal Bosco + * Derek Homeier * Dima Kogan + * Dmitry Kutlenkov + * Douglas Fenstermacher + * Dustin Spicuzza + * E. Madison Bray + * Elia Franzella + * Enrique Matías Sánchez + * Erfan Nariman | Veneficus + * Eric Larson * Eric Moore * Eric Wieser * Erik M. Bray * EthanCJ-git + * Etienne Guesnet + * FX Coudert + * Felix Divo * Frankie Robertson + * Ganesh Kathiresan * Gengxin Xie * Gerry Manoim + * Guilherme Leobas * Hassan Kibirige * Hugo Mendes + * Hugo van Kemenade * Ian Thomas + * InessaPawson + * Isabela Presedo-Floyd + * Isuru Fernando * Jakob Jakobson + * Jakub Wilk * James Myatt + * Jesse Li + * John Hagen + * John Zwinck * Joseph Fox-Rabinovitz * Josh Wilson * Jovial Joe Jayarson + * Julia Signell + * Jun Kudo + * Karan Dhir + * Kaspar Thommen + * Kerem Hallaç * Kevin Moore + * Kevin Sheppard * Klaus Zimmermann + * LSchroefl + * Laurie + * Laurie Stephey + * Levi Stovall + * Lisa Schwetlick + * Lukas Geiger + * Madhulika Jain Chambers + * Matthias Bussonnier * Matti Picus * Melissa Weber Mendonça * Michael Hirsch * Nick R. Papior * Nikola Forró * Noman Arshad + * Paul YS Lee + * Pauli Virtanen * Paweł Redzyński + * Peter Andreas Entschev * Peter Bell * Philippe Ombredanne + * Phoenix Meadowlark + * Piotr Gaiński * Raghav Khanna + * Raghuveer Devulapalli * Rajas Rade + * Rakesh Vasudevan * Ralf Gommers * Raphael Kruse + * Rashmi K A + * Robert Kern * Rohit Sanjay + * Roman Yurchak * Ross Barnowski * Royston E Tauro + * Ryan C Cooper + * Ryan Soklaski * Safouane Chergui + * Sahil Siddiq + * Sarthak Vineet Kumar + * Sayed Adel * Sebastian Berg * Sergei Vorfolomeev + * Seth Troisi * Sidhant Bansal + * Simon Gasse * Simon Graham + * Stefan Appelhoff + * Stefan Behnel + * Stefan van der Walt * Steve Dower * Steve Joachim + * Steven Pitman + * Stuart Archibald * Sturla Molden * Susan Chang + * Takanori H + * Tapajyoti Bose + * Thomas A Caswell * Tina Oberoi * Tirth Patel * Tobias Pitters + * Tomoki, Karatsu + * Tyler Reddy * Veniamin Petrenko + * Wansoo Kim + * Warren Weckesser * Wei Yang + * Wojciech Rzadkowski * Yang Hau + * Yogesh Raisinghani + * Yu Feng * Yuya Unno + * Zac Hatfield-Dodds * Zuhair Ali-Khan + * @abhilash42 + * @danbeibei + * @dojafrat * @dpitch40 + * @forfun + * @iamsoto + * @jbrockmendel + * @leeyspaul + * @mitch + * @prateek arora + * @serge-sans-paille + * @skywalker + * @stphnlyd + * @xoviat * @谭九鼎 + * @JMFT + * @Jack + * @Neal C + Cheers, Charles Harris