Since 1986 - Covering the Fastest Computers
in the World and the People Who Run Them
Visit additional Tabor Communication Publications
December 02, 2005
The (Supercomputing) World According to Horst
Last month on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Horst Simon presented a lecture entitled "Progress in Supercomputing: The Top Three Breakthroughs of the Last 20 Years and the Top Three Challenges for the Next 20 Years." The presentation was sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series.
As one of the foremost authorities in supercomputing, Dr. Simon offers us his unique perspectives in this area. In the lecture, he gives us his historical perspective of supercomputing over the previous two decades and his outlook for the next two. What follows is an abstract of the presentation as well as a link to the taped video -- which is approximately one hour in length. The abstract and video were provided courtesy of CITRIS.
As a community we have almost forgotten, what supercomputing was like twenty years ago in 1985.The state-of-the-art system then was a 2 Gflop/s peak Cray-2, with at that time a phenomenal 2 GBytes memory. It was the era of custom-built vector mainframes, where anything beyond 100 Mflop/s sustained was considered excellent performance. The software environment was Fortran with vectorizing compilers (at best), and a proprietary operating system. There was hand tuning only, no tools, no visualization, and dumb terminals with remote batch. If one was lucky and had an account, remote access via 9600 baud was state-of-the-art. Usually, a single code developer developed and coded everything from scratch.
What a long way we have come in the last twenty years! Teraflops-level performance on inexpensive, highly parallel commodity clusters, open source software, community codes, grid access via 10 Gbit/s, powerful visualization systems, and a productive development environment on a desktop system that is more powerful than the Cray-2 from 20 years ago -- these are the characteristics of high performance computing in 2005.
Of course, a significant contribution to this progress is due to the continued increase of computing power following Moore's Law. But what I want to argue here is that progress was not just simply quantitative alone. We did not just get more of the same at a cheaper price. There were several powerful ideas and concepts that were shaped in the last 20 years that made supercomputing the vibrant field that it is today. As an active researcher in the field for the last 25 years, I will offer my subjective opinion, what were the real top breakthrough ideas that led to qualitative change and significant progress in our field?
Retrospection leads to extrapolation: in the last part of the lecture, I will envision what supercomputing will be like 20 years from now in the year 2025. Can we expect similar performance increases? How will supercomputing change qualitatively, and what are the top challenges that we will have to overcome to reach that vision of supercomputing in 2025?
To view the video of the presentation, download mms://netshow01.eecs.berkeley.edu/Horst_Simon.
Discussion
There are 0 discussion items posted.
|
Join the Discussion |
Sponsored Links
Accelerate your computational research and engineering applications with Exxact’s Tesla K20 GPU workstations and servers, maximized for supercomputing professionals.
- Progress in Parallel: the Bull Parallel Programming Center
- White Paper: Building a Data-Intensive Cluster Supercomputer
- Enterprise HPC software platforms engineering & software acceleration services
- Unmasking the Concealed Costs & Challenges of Open Source Tools
- PGI 2013: Industry-leading Performance, OpenACC and More
- Unified profiling and debugging lowers costs and boosts productivity
- The Cray CS300™ – Flexibility. Performance. Manageability. Results.
- Revolution R Enterprise Delivers Big Data Predictive Analytics
- TotalView release supports Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessor and more
- PGI 2013: OpenMP 1.5X faster than GCC, new GNU-compatible OpenACC C++ compiler, CUDA 5 and Tesla K20 support, and more.
RSS Feeds
Feeds by Topic
- Applications
- Developer Tools
- Interconnects
- Middleware
- Networks
- Processors
- Storage
- Systems
- Visualization
Feeds by Industry
Feeds by Content Type
- Features
- Blogs
- Short Takes
- Off the Wire
- Whitepapers
- Multimedia
- HPC Soundbite Podcasts
- HPCwire Job Bank
Subscribe to All Content
June 19, 2013
- CANARIE Expands 100G Research & Education Network with Ciena
- Strong Gains for Co-Processors and Big Data at HPC Sites
- Bull Delivers First European Supercomputer Based on Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 Processors
- Eurotech Introduces New Version of Aurora Tigon Supercomputers
June 18, 2013
- AMD Unveils Server Strategy and Roadmap
- 2013 International Supercomputing Conference Opens in Leipzig
- HPC Advisory Council Announces 2nd Annual Spain Supercomputing Conference
- EADS Announces 'Join the Spirit' Award Winners
- AMAX ClusterMax Cluster and ServMax Server Solutions Updated
- IDC Announces New Winners of HPC Innovation Excellence Awards
- Xyratex Enhances ClusterStor Operating System, Unlocks More Value for Scale-Out HPC Storage
- Researchers Deploy GPUs to Build World's Largest Artificial Neural Network
- Cray Launches Complete Lustre Storage Solution Across HPC and Big Data Computing Markets
- Azul Systems and Solarflare Partner to Eliminate Java Application Jitter for Capital Markets
- Mellanox Technologies Names Board Chairman
June 17, 2013
- Cirrascale Announces Expanded Support for Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor Product Family
- AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 Powers Rubicon Project
- World Premiere for Turbocharged Data Speed
- Mellanox's FDR InfiniBand Solution with NVIDIA GPUDirect RDMA Technology Provides Superior Performance
- Purdue Builds Nation's Fastest Campus Supercomputer - Again
- Colfax Announces New Line of Servers and Workstations Supporting Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors
- Cray CS300 Cluster Supercomputers to Feature New Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors x100 Family
- Intel Powers the World's Fastest Supercomputer, Reveals HPC Technologies
- Supermicro Announces Support for New Intel Xeon Phi x100 Product Family
- IDT RapidIO 20 Gbps-Per-Port Switches Provide High Performance Interconnect for Supercomputer
- Colorado State University Engineering Professors Receive Award to Design Green Supercomputers
- IDC Market Study Shows Strong Gains for Co-Processors and Big Data at HPC Sites
- Altair's PBS Professional Deployed on Cray XC30 Supercomputer at JAIST
- Mellanox FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand Solutions Deliver Leading Application Performance and Scalability
- MilkyWay-2 Wins #1 Supercomputer in the World According to Top500.org
- Acceleware Showcases High Performance Optimization Techniques at ISC'13
- Penguin Computing, Calxeda, and Inktank Partner to Deliver Large-Scale Storage on ARM-based Servers
- SGI and DoD Launch Supercomputer Spirit, the Fastest System in the Department
- Mellanox Demonstrates World's First InfiniBand Connectivity With NVIDIA Tegra ARM Processor
- e2v Adds the P2041 and P3041 Quad-Core Processors to its Portfolio of QorIQ Products
- Adaptive Computing to Manage Computing Workloads for HPC
- Xyratex to Showcase New HPC Storage Offerings and Value at ISC'13
- NAG Showcases New Parallelized Numerical Solvers at ISC'13
- Tabor Communications and EMI Partner to Publish HPCwire Japan
June 14, 2013
- Samplify APAX Storage Library Accelerates Disk Throughput and Expands Storage Capacity
- Silicon Mechanics Announces Availability of Seagate Constellation ES.3 Hard Drive
- ESI Opens Offices on the Ter@tec Campus Dedicated to Simulation and High Performance Computing
June 13, 2013
- Ace Computers' Massive Military Build Shows Custom Computers Reign
- Worldwide High Performance Computing 2012 Total Market Model and 2013-17 Forecast
- ISC Big Data and Cloud Newsletter
- Silicon Mechanics Partners with Acellera on Biomolecular Simulation Hardware-Software Appliance
- Army Supercomputing Center Signals Growth in Soldier Protection Solutions
- OpenSFS to Highlight Lustre in New Markets at ISC13 by Hosting Participatory Community Events
- HPCAC and ISC to Showcase HPC Coders and Cluster Administrators
- Cray Launches New Hadoop Solution on Cray CS300 Line of Cluster Supercomputers
- AMD's SeaMicro Servers Accelerate Biomolecular Research to Provide HPC
- Lawrence Livermore's Vulcan Available for Collaborations With Industry and Academia
- Acceleware Releases AxRTM 6.0
June 12, 2013
- BSC Building First Supercomputer to Combine ARM CPUs, GPU Accelerators, and InfiniBand
- First Open Source Release of E-iRODS Announced by RENCI
- Cycle Computing CEO to Speak on Utility HPC at Cloud Slam and LiveStream Event
- NAG Library for Intel Xeon Phi Launches at ISC13
- NAG HPC Applications Performance and Scalability Expertise Acknowledged
- Titan Completes Acceptance Testing
- Silicon Mechanics Announces Intel SSD Data Center S3500 Series High Performance Hard Disk Drives
- Bright Cluster Manager 6.1 Delivers Full Support for the Intel Xeon Phi and Amazon VPC
- RAID Launches Ultra-Dense, High Performance 4U 60-Bay Dual Server Node Solution
- Adaptive Computing Launches Workload Optimization Pack for Cluster Platforms
- IBM Expands Support for Linux on Power Systems Servers
- TotalView Offers Debugging Support for Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor
June 11, 2013
- Scalable Informatics siFlash Dominates STAC-M3 Benchmarks
- Netlist to Present the Advantages of HyperCloud Memory at IBM's Edge2013 Conference
- Panasas Launches High Performance File Transfer Software
- CoolIT Selected to Host Birds of a Feather Session at ISC13
- Calxeda and Inktank Team to Deliver Transformative Ceph-Based Storage Platform
- MEGWARE and Chemnitz University of Technology in International Battle for Supercomputing Title
- Ingram Micro's Artizen Portfolio Simplifies High Performance Solutions
- Intel Introducing New Lustre Solution
- Europe and US Exascale Thought Leaders to Join US DOE X-Stack Members at ISC
- Innodisk Exhibits at International SuperComputing 2013
- Asetek Showcases Latest Datacenter Efficiency Solutions at ISC
- UC San Diego Launches New Research Computing Program
- Tabor Communications Further Strengthens its Digital Marketing Strategy
- Solarflare to Speak at STAC Summits in Chicago, New York, and London
- Seneca Expands its Presence in the Digital Broadcast Market by Joining the Sports Video Group
June 10, 2013
- IBM Unveils Big Data, Cloud Enhancements Throughout Systems Portfolio
- Altera Announces Breakthrough Advantages with Generation 10 FPGAs and SoCs
- Supermicro Appoints StorIT As Value Added Distributor For MENA Region
- Beacon Shines for Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor Developers With Allinea Tools
- Hack Reactor Programming Students Attempt World Record, Produce Supercomputer
- IIT-Madras Ties Up With IBM
- sTec Highlights Growth Strategy Progress
June 07, 2013
- Computational Models Highlight Bacterial Growth
- Governor, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Announce Over $100 Million in Capital Grant Funding
Most Read Features
- Details Emerge About China's 50+ Petaflop Chart-Topper
- Full Details Uncovered on Chinese Top Supercomputer
- Is China Set to Unveil Record-Shattering Supercomputer?
- Blacklisted Russian Supercomputing Company Speaks to Suspicions
- Exascale Advocates Stand on Nuclear Stockpiles
- Top 500 Results Reveal Global Acceleration, Balance Shift
- Intel Carves Mainstream Highway for Lustre
- CERN, Google Drive Future of Global Science Initiatives
- Six Can't Miss Sessions for ISC'13
- Dell Boxes Up HPC for Life Sciences
Most Read Around the Web
- Building Supercomputers with Raspberries
- TACC's Hadoop Cluster Breaks New Ground
- The 5 Minute Guide to Parallel and Vector Software Programming
- NASA Builds 'Climate in a Box'
- Dust Storms Put GPU CPU Performance to the Test
- Titan Didn't Redo LINPACK for June Top 500 List
- Intel Says Haswell Chips Offer ISVs Full OpenCL Compatibility
- GASPI Targets Exascale Programming Limits
- Mapping the Energy Envelope of Multicore ARM Chips
- Top Supercomputer Signals Growth of Chinese HPC Industry
Most Read This Just In
- University of Iowa VP for Research to Discuss Advanced Computing
- New OMAP5432 Processor-Based Evaluation Module From Texas Instruments
- Supermicro Announces X10 Server Building Blocks Supporting Intel Haswell Processors
- Dell Introduces New Solutions Designed for Data-Intensive Workloads
- Skyera Adds NAS to skyHawk Enterprise Solid-State Storage Systems
- Supermicro Announces New High-Density Server Solutions
- Army Supercomputing Research Center Opens New Facility
- OpenFabrics Alliance to Host Two RDMA Training Courses at University of New Hampshire
- Fujitsu Brings Simplicity to High-Performance Computing
- Model of Sun's Magnetic Field Created
Most Read Blogs
- Podcast: Exascale Equals No Nukes; IBM Says "Let's Build a Smarter HPC"
- Podcast: Chinese Scale Top500 Wall; Preparing for a New No. 1 at ISC
- Podcast: T-Platforms CEO Responds to US Blacklist; Dell Boxes Up HPC for Life Sciences
- Podcast: A Conversation with the Founding Fathers of the Top500
- Podcast: Intel Ushers Lustre into the Mainstream; A Look Ahead to Germany and ISC13
- Podcast: A New Top of the Top500; ISC Kicks Off in Leipzig
Short Takes
Developers Tout GPI Model for Exascale Computing
Jun 19, 2013 |
Supercomputer architectures have evolved considerably over the last 20 years, particularly in the number of processors that are linked together. One aspect of HPC architecture that hasn't changed is the MPI programming model.
Read more...
Supercomputers: Not Always the Best for Big Data
Jun 18, 2013 |
The world's largest supercomputers, like Tianhe-2, are great at traditional, compute-intensive HPC workloads, such as simulating atomic decay or modeling tornados. But data-intensive applications--such as mining big data sets for connections--is a different sort of workload, and runs best on a different sort of computer.
Read more...
Gordon Flashes Its Versatility in HPC Workloads
Jun 18, 2013 |
Researchers are finding innovative uses for Gordon, the 285 teraflop supercomputer housed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) that has a unique Flash-based storage system. Since going online, researchers have put the incredibly fast I/O to use on a wide variety of workloads, ranging from chemistry to political science.
Read more...
Supercomputers: Still the King of the HPC Hill
Jun 17, 2013 |
The advent of low-power mobile processors and cloud delivery models is changing the economics of computing. But just as an economy car is good at different things than a full size truck, an HPC workload still has certain computing demands that neither the fastest smartphone nor the most elastic cloud cluster can fulfill.
Read more...
TACC Longhorn Takes On Natural Language Processing
Jun 14, 2013 |
For all the progress we've made in IT over the last 50 years, there's one area of life that has steadfastly eluded the grasp of computers: understanding human language. Now, researchers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) are utilizing a Hadoop cluster on its Longhorn supercomputer to move the state of the art of language processing a little bit further.
Read more...
Sponsored Whitepapers
Best Practices in Big Data Storage
05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.
Progress in Parallel: the Bull Parallel Programming Center
04/15/2013 | Bull | “50% of HPC users say their largest jobs scale to 120 cores or less.” How about yours? Are your codes ready to take advantage of today’s and tomorrow’s ultra-parallel HPC systems? Download this White Paper by Analysts Intersect360 Research to see what Bull and Intel’s Center for Excellence in Parallel Programming can do for your codes.
Sponsored Multimedia
HPCwire Live! Atlanta's Big Data Kick Off Week Meets HPC
Join HPCwire Editor Nicole Hemsoth and Dr. David Bader from Georgia Tech as they take center stage on opening night at Atlanta's first Big Data Kick Off Week, filmed in front of a live audience. Nicole and David look at the evolution of HPC, today's big data challenges, discuss real world solutions, and reveal their predictions. Exactly what does the future holds for HPC?
Webinar: Mellanox Virtual Modular Switch, the Most Efficient 40GbE Aggregation Switch Solution
Join our webinar to learn how IT managers can migrate to a more resilient, flexible and scalable solution that grows with the data center. Mellanox VMS is future-proof, efficient and brings significant CAPEX and OPEX savings. The VMS is available today.
HPC Job Bank
Featured Events
- June 20, 2013
- June 21, 2013
CIO North America
Marina Del Rey, CA
United States
- June 24, 2013
- June 25, 2013
The Trading Show Chicago
Chicago, IL
United States
- June 24, 2013
- June 28, 2013
2013 Federated Conferences Week (FCW '13)
San Jose, CA
United States
- June 25, 2013
- June 26, 2013
TERATEC 2013 Forum
Paris,
France
- July 22, 2013
- July 25, 2013
XSEDE13: Gateway to Discovery
San Diego, CA
United States
- November 17, 2013
- November 22, 2013
SC'13
Denver, CO
United States
