Here’s a collection of highlights, selected totally subjectively, from this week’s HPC news stream as reported at insideHPC.com and HPCwire.
>>10 words and a link
IDC reports 15.5% HPC server market growth in 2007;
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/2150658.html
Encanto completes first test run on small subset of machine;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/02/14/new-mexico-supercomputer-completes-first-test-run/
Cray sweeps DoD Mod Program’s FY08 acquisition;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/02/19/cray-wins-4-of-5-dod-hpcmp-systems/
3rd annual TeraGrid conference announced;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/02/19/teragrid-conference-2008/
U of Ark installs 1,256 core Xeon system from Dell;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/02/20/arkansas-installs-13-tflops-dell/
AMD Performance Library released under GPL 3.0;
http://tinyurl.com/2epbzl
>>Letter from SGI to LNXI customers
The letter linked below was sent from SGI to Linux Networx customers, and the InsideTrack at insideHPC.com secured a copy through its vast network of industry insiders.
The letter, from SGI Global Services VP Bob Pette, outlines what LNXI customers can expect. A few highlights of interest.
First, SGI’s take on what happened:
Today SGI announced the purchase of certain assets of Linux Networx, Inc.. In conjunction with this transaction SGI has offered employment to a number of Linux Networx employees in the Engineering, Sales and Services areas and acquired LNXI’s spare parts inventory.
And then what it means for LNXI customers (note the honesty):
SGI did not acquire Linux Networx’s service contracts and as such, does not have a service contract in place with you. …During this period of transition, please continue to place your LNXI service requests as before by calling 1-800-459-7138 or online at http://support.linuxnetworx.com.
Very refreshing. Here is the whole letter as a PDF: http://insidehpc.com/images/02192008/LNXISGILetter.pdf.
>>Win cash in the HPC Challenge at SC08
Jack Dongarra sent me an email today (name drop!) to let me know that the HPC Challenge gauntlet has again been thrown down, and it’s time to show off your l33t skills and take home the Benjamins.
From the announcement:
The goal of the competition is to focus the HPC community’s attention on developing a broad set of HPC hardware and HPC software capabilities that are necessary to productively use HPC systems. The awards session will be held during the SC08 conference.
This is the third year for the competition, which focuses on four benchmarks from the HPC Challenge suite: Global HPL, Global Random Access, Triad, and Global FFT. The awards are $750 for best performance, and $2000 for most productivity. Note the emphasis on what matters (or should matter) most in HPC:
This award would be weighted 50 percent on performance and 50 percent on code elegance, clarity, and size. Both will be determined by an evaluation committee. For this award, the implementer must submit to [email protected] (by Oct. 24, 2008) a short description of: the implementation, the performance achieved, lines-of-code, and the actual source code of their implementation.
I’ve posted the full text of the announcement at insideHPC in the event you have a hard time finding it over the next couple days (http://insidehpc.com/images/02212008/HPC_Challenge_Awards_ad_2008.doc).
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John West is part of the team that summarizes the headlines in HPC news every day at insideHPC.com. You can contact him at [email protected]. Too busy to keep up? Make your commute productive and listen to the Weekly Takeout, insideHPC.com’s weekly audio news summary of the HPC news week in review.