NEWS BRIEFS

Dallas, Texas — High performance computing and networking researchers interested in showcasing their achievements at SC2000, the conference of high performance networking and computing, have until Friday, July 28, to submit applications for several key events at the conference.

SC2000 will be held Nov. 4-10 in Dallas, Texas, and provides an opportunity for both researchers and vendors to demonstrate their latest achievements and capabilities. SC2000 is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (ACM/SIGARCH).

Activities and events subject to the July 28 deadline are: Research Gems, formerly known as posters, provide an opportunity for researchers to present insights into the solutions of specific research problems in high-performance networking and computing. This category allows the spotlighting of research problems using a traditional poster format or a Web-based presentation, using facilities provided by SC2000. More info is at http://www.sc2000.org/gems .

HPC Games introduces a new wrinkle this year, the $10K Computer Challenge. Participants are being asked to build their own high-performance computing machine (or machines) for under $10K, and bring these machines to the SC2000 exhibition floor to compete, running a series of predetermined benchmarks. The benchmarks will exercise a balanced assortment of metrics covering CPU performance, disk performance and network performance, and various combinations of these metrics as seen in typical high-performance applications. More info is at http://www.sc2000.org/games .

Birds-Of-A-Feather Sessions (BOFs) are informal, evening get-togethers where conference attendees can discuss topics of mutual interest. The conference provides meeting-room facilities and posts daily schedules for BOFs. BOFs are open to all conference attendees, including exhibitors and exhibits-only badge holders. Proposals must include a descriptive abstract (150 words), contact information for the organizer, a short description of issues to be addressed and the intended audience, the expected number of participants, any equipment requests, and time preferences. Time slots are made available on a first-come, first-served basis. More info is at http://www.sc2000.org/bofs .

eSCape 2000 is a new event this year and will explore the concept of “HPC Anywhere.” The conference will provide a wireless infrastructure as part of SCinet to serve as a showcase for demonstrations of novel interfaces to HPC resources, data, and applications. The tone of the event is that of a demonstration – not a competition – and the goal is to provide a forum for stimulating broad community discussions about how these new technologies will impact HPC. Participants are invited to demonstrate applications and technologies that they feel best illustrate how being able to reach “HPC Anywhere” will impact supercomputing and the people and industries that depend on supercomputing.

The eSCape2000 event will be organized as a combination forum/permanent exhibit. In order to encourage participation by the largest possible mix of conference attendees, eSCape 2000 events will be held on a reserved area of the exhibit floor. Participants will each be allotted 25 minutes during the exhibition for a presentation and demonstration of their research projects. In addition, each team will be provided space within the eSCape 2000 area to set up a permanent poster describing their project. More info is at http://www.sc2000.org/escape2000 .

Student Volunteer applications are also due by July 28. Student volunteers help out with the administration of the conference in exchange for free conference registration, housing, most meals, conference goodies and more. SC asks for a total of 20-25 hours of work. Students will interact with the conference organizers and presenters and meet other students from all over the world. Student volunteers have the opportunity to see and discuss the latest high-performance networking and computing technology and meet leading researchers from around the world while contributing to the success of this annual event. Details can be found at http://www.sc2000.org/students/index.htm/ .

More information about all aspects of the SC2000 conference can be found on the Web at http://www.sc2000.org .

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