August 03, 2011
This week National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States is airing a special series that looks at the state of global supercomputing.
From China's top position on the rankings to energy efficiency for the next generation of supers, the radio event is providing a glimpse into the world of HPC for listeners who would otherwise probably not encounter high performance computing news.
The host of the series interviewed a number of luminaries in HPC, most of whom are academics or HPC researchers. For instance, Jack Dongarra from the University of Tennessee and TOP500 suggested during yesterday's installment that the Chinese system could be considered an "expensive white elephant" as it is not clear how it will be used. As Dongarra told host Louisa Lim:
“So they have a race car. And now you have to build something around the race car in order to effectively use it. You can't just invest in the hardware. You need to make an investment across the board. Sometimes these ecosystems are out of balance, and as a result of that, the computer would be very hard to use.”
This particular installment focused on supercomputing as a national point of pride and the perceived “usefulness” of China's Tianhe-1A. It also touched on the challenges that China will face in developing applications that are well-suited to run it, addressing the idea that this is a “gaming” system versus anything of practical value.
Outside of its emphasis on competition versus solid technology, this installment is worth a listen, as are others that can be found at npr.org.
Full story at NPR
Not content to let the Tianhe-2 announcement ride alone, Intel rolled out a series of announcements around its Knights Corner and Xeon Phi products--all of which are aimed at adding some options and variety for a wider base of potential users across the HPC spectrum. Today at the International Supercomputing Conference, the company's Raj....
Read more...
The Top 500 list of the world's fastest computers has just been announced. Not surprisingly, since it's been reported on prior to the official announcement, the Chinese Tianhe-2 system tops the list. And that is an understatement. We talk with Jack Dongarra, Horst Simon, Hans Meuer and others from the....
Read more...
Outside of the main attractions, including the keynote sessions, vendor showdowns, Think Tank panels, BoFs, and tutorial elements, the International Supercomputing Conference has balanced its five-day agenda with some striking panels, discussions and topic areas that are worthy of some attention....
Read more...
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.
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.
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?
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.