SC08 panel discussions to look at where we've been, where we're headed

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 16 -- Will electric utilities of the future give away supercomputers with the purchase of a power contract? Industry experts in high performance computing, communications and storage technologies will explore this question and others in a handful of select panels at SC08 in Austin, Texas, Nov. 15-21, 2008.

SC08 will celebrate 20 years of unleashing the power of HPC this year, following the traditions set by the first SC Conference in 1988. The conference showcases the latest in high performance computing (HPC), networking, storage, and analysis applied to the world's most challenging commercial, scientific, and engineering problems. The panels sessions at this year's conference will bring together the experts from government, industry, and leading schools from around the world to debate and discuss the most interesting and challenging ideas in HPC.

Registration for SC08 Technical Program is now open. In addition to the seven panel discussions, this year's Technical Program will include two days of tutorials, three days of technical paper presentations, a keynote address and other invited speakers, a flock of birds-of-a-feather sessions, poster presentations and more. For more information about registration categories and rates and to register, go to http://sc08.supercomputing.org/?pg=registration.html#reg.

The panel program features 6 panel sessions that are expected to trigger lively, and even passionate, debate:

• Applications for Heterogeneous, Massively Parallel Systems
  
  Tarek El-Ghazawi and leading lights in the software field ask (and maybe answer) the question, "Can Developing Applications for Massively Parallel Systems with Heterogeneous Processors Be Made Easy(er)?"
  
  
• Will Electric Utilities Give Away Supercomputers with the Purchase of a Power Contract?
  
  With power requirements for Leadership Class systems rapidly growing beyond 10 megawatts, the lifetime cost of electricity used (assuming it is available) is approaching the cost of the system. Representatives from government, academia, and the computer industry will discuss the impact of this development and the diverse approaches to deal with it.
  
  
• My Cloud, Your Cloud
  
  Is cloud computing for real, or just more vaporware? Experts including Ian Foster and Tom Sterling debate the issue.
  
  
• SC Past and Future
  
  A diverse panel of past SC General Chairs considers the past 20 years of Supercomputing (remember when that really was the name of the conference?) and makes its predictions for the next 20. Fun for both SC old hands and first-time attendees.
  
  
• Exa and Yotta Scale Data
  
  Teraflop machines bred petabyte and larger data sets. Are we ready for what comes out of Petaflop machines? Bill Kramer and his panelists from government, industry and academia will tell us.
  
  
• The Hungry Music Monster
  
  HPC will change the face of music. No, this isn't the plot of a 50's drive-in movie. It's real, it's here today, and this panel will tell you how it's happening.
  
  
• Disruptive Technologies: Weapons of Mass Disruption
  
  HPC technological developments in several areas have the potential to impact exascale systems in a very disruptive way. These "weapons" for building exascale systems could lead to viable systems in the 2015-2020 timeframe. This panel session surveys four technology areas and explore their potential disruptive impacts: quantum computing; flash storage; cheap and low power optical communications; 3D chip stacking.

About SC08

SC08, sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Scalable Computing and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Computer Architecture, will showcase how high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in research, education and commerce. This premiere international conference includes technical and education programs, workshops, tutorials, an exhibit area, demonstrations and hands-on learning. For more information, visit http://sc08.supercomputing.org/.

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Source: SC08