Michael Feldman What Every Technologist Should Know (but doesn't)
Post Date: August 03, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

There are certain skills that every aspiring technologist should have, but that are not being taught very well in schools or the workplace. Editor Michael Feldman spotlights a couple of individuals who are trying to drive these productivity-enhancing skills into the technology community. Feldman also offers some perspective on IBM's renewed love for the AMD Opteron and talks about some recent developments in the use of Cell processors.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Who's Driving High Performance Computing?
Post Date: July 27, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

The commercial growth of HPC over the last two decades has fundamentally changed that economic realities of high performance computing. But the dichotomy between government and industrial applications of HPC has created a tension that challenges the future of supercomputing. Is the government losing its direction in HPC? Editor Michael Feldman examines some of the forces at work in this ever-evolving struggle.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Itanium: the Sequel
Post Date: July 20, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

After a delay of nearly a year, this week Intel finally launched its dual-core Itanium 2 Processor 9000 series (formerly code-named Montecito). Editor Michael Feldman talks about the significance of Intel's new offering.He also offers a few thoughts on global warming (from the comfort of his air-conditioned office).

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Is it Time for Heterogeneous Supercomputing?
Post Date: July 13, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

With all the talk of heterogeneous supercomputing over the last few years, one might get the impression that a revolution is on the horizon. Editor Michael Feldman discusses some of the forces behind this new computing model and offers his perspective on how it might attain mainstream status.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman The Heat is On
Post Date: July 06, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

As summer gets into full swing, Editor Michael Feldman turns his attention to the power and cooling "crisis" in high performance computing. Feldman reviews some recent articles on this hot topic and offers some thoughts of his own.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Putting Things in Perspective
Post Date: June 29, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

Thanks to this week's International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), today's issue of HPCwire is one of the largest of the year. ISC always seems to put a charge into the HPC community and 2006 was no exception. This week, Editor Michael Feldman provides a rundown on some of this issue's highlights as well as some pointers to a few exceptional articles from our special ISC coverage on Wednesday and Thursday.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Closing In On Petaflops
Post Date: June 22, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

The HPC community has been reaching towards systems capable of petaflops performance ever since the teraflops barrier was conquered back in December of 1996. Today systems that will execute a quadrillion floating point operations per second are close to becoming a reality. In fact, one such system may already exist. Editor Michael Feldman observes some recent developments that suggest we are on the threshold of the petaflops era of supercomputing.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Musings on the Nature of Software
Post Date: June 15, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

Editor Michael Feldman ponders why software seems to be so resistant to engineering, especially as compared to hardware. Inspired by research being conducted by a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Feldman offers his perspective on why software is so problematic and why it is often perceived with such disdain.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Cluster Computing Gets the Spotlight in Redmond
Post Date: June 08, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

On June 9, Microsoft announced its first production version of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Editor Michael Feldman offers a few thoughts about what this new product could mean for the high performance computing community.

• Read more...

Michael Feldman Is the Cell Processor Poised for HPC Stardom?
Post Date: June 01, 2006 @ 9:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: From the Editor

While pondering the huge response to last week's article on the potential of the Cell processor for high performance computing, editor Michael Feldman offers some perspective on the growing interest in this innovative architecture. The High-End Crusader, also provides some observations on the Cell's suitability as a general-purpose parallel computing platform.

• Read more...