http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs RSS Feed for Blogs en-us Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:25 GMT 2008-05-16T15:06:25Z en-us http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18991744.html If you read just one HPCwire article this week, be sure to catch John West's profile of the National Visualization and Analytics Center. The center is developing visual analytic tools for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The work is particularly interesting because it fits into the category of "Edge HPC," Tabor Research's term for HPC that lies outside the traditional science and engineering realm. Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:25 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18991744.html 2008-05-16T15:06:25Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18960259.html The Mathworks has integrated the company's Parallel Computing Toolbox with two MATLAB optimization tool sets: the Optimization Toolbox and the Genetic Algorithm and Direct Search Toolbox. Thu, 15 May 2008 17:31:31 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18960259.html 2008-05-15T17:31:31Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18918279.html Earlier today IBM announced the new BladeCenter QS22, a new blade server that incorporates the latest Cell processor, the PowerXCell 8i. While the new name might not exactly roll off your tongue, IBM has managed to address one of the Cell's major technical shortcomings (at least for the HPC crowd), namely much better double precision floating point performance. Wed, 14 May 2008 16:11:06 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18918279.html 2008-05-14T16:11:06Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18880454.html Late Monday, AMD announced an organizational shakeup, which included the creation of a new centralized engineering organization and the resignation of two top execs. Tue, 13 May 2008 02:46:48 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18880454.html 2008-05-13T02:46:48Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18782644.html On Wednesday, AMD presented its revised server processor plans for the next couple of years. The roadmap included the upcoming 45nm Shanghai chip, new six- and twelve-core Opteron processors, and the next-generation socket for DDR3 and PCIe Gen 2. AMD's new path also gives us some idea why Cray decided to play nice with Intel. Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:27 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18782644.html 2008-05-12T17:18:27Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18748159.html A day after SGI said NASA would be installing a 245 teraflop Altix ICE machine at Ames Research Center, the space agency announced it would be teaming with SGI and Intel for their next generation petascale supercomputer, called Pleiades. Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:24 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18748159.html 2008-05-12T17:18:24Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18711884.html Today SGI announced that NASA has selected a 245 teraflop Altix ICE supercomputer for the space agency's next major HPC system. Later in the day, the company posted a $40 million quarterly loss. Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:21 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18711884.html 2008-05-12T17:18:21Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18667919.html Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Tensilica Inc. have announced a partnership to research exascale supercomputing design. The program will combine LBNL's supercomputing smarts with Tensilica's expertise in microprocessor technology. Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:19 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18667919.html 2008-05-12T17:18:19Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18461569.html I got my share of both condemnation and praise from last week's rant about our anti-intellectual culture. I'll save the attaboys for my personal file, but I'd like to share a couple of the more coherent critical responses I received... Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:16 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18461569.html 2008-05-12T17:18:16Z http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18460759.html HP Labs seems to have come up with something pretty cool. Earlier today, researchers there claimed they'd proven the existence of the "memristor," the fourth fundamental type of electrical circuit. Mon, 12 May 2008 17:18:14 GMT http://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/18460759.html 2008-05-12T17:18:14Z