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

ASU HPCI Aids Myanmar Relief Effort;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/23/asu-hpci-aids-myanmar-relief-effort/

Green 500 deadline Jun 13, 2008;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/23/green500-deadline/

Free HPC training videos up;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/29/cluster-monkey-offers-free-training-vids/

TACC’s HPC rockstar;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/26/hpc-needs-more-rock-stars/

Platform’s new cluster management suite;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/26/platform-aims-at-cluster-management-market/

ClearSpeed user group at ISC;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/26/clearspeed-user-group-meeting/

CSIR and Meraka CHPC to Develop CFD Code;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/28/csir-and-meraka-chpc-to-develop-cfd-code/

HP launches scale out focus for HPC, Web 2.0;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/28/hps-new-scale-out-focus/

Allinea moves debugger to NEC’s SX;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/28/allineas-ddt-on-necs-sx/

Seats still open at the SiCortex application workshop;
http://insidehpc.com/2008/05/28/sicortex-application-workshop-at-argonne-cont/

>>IBM to open source major pieces of HPC software infrastructure

Last week I wrote a story at HPCwire about the recent changes and upgrades across IBM’s entire HPC portfolio. One of the interesting aspects of this story for me was the degree to which IBM is maintaining a very vibrant and yet diverse product line of HPC products across all segments of the market.

The story was mostly retrospective, summarizing a quarter’s worth of changes over IBM’s products. There was a piece of forward-looking news in there, but I buried it at the end. The news relates to IBM’s extensive HPC software portfolio. Here’s the final paragraph from that story, focusing on the open sourcing of key IBM intellectual property:

The company has decided, in a move that would seem to be a big departure from its usual way of looking at the world, that it should open source much of the software it has developed over the past 20 years for this market. IBM plans to open source applications like LoadLeveler and its high performance math libraries. Detailed plans are expected this summer, but Schultz did reveal that the software repository will be managed by the University of Illinois. Said Shultz: “IBM really feels there is a lot of value in this software, and opening up the IP will benefit the community much more than keeping it closed and putting out twice yearly releases.”

Stay tuned for more announcements on this as the summer goes on.

>>OSC part of $1M computer-based training center

The Ohio polymers industry and Ohio Supercomputing Center (OSC) have received a $1 million federal grant to build a computer-based resource center that companies and organizations in the state of Ohio can utilize for workforce training and product development. The PolymerOhio group and OSC will jointly develop a “polymer portal” that will offer computer models for testing new consumer products. The joint venture will also develop university certificate programs in computational science. Certificates will be linked to Ohio State’s College of Engineering master’s program.

“The courses and certifications that will be established under the program will be invaluable in preparing the workforce in our industry to move quickly and surely into the computer age,” said Wayne Earley, president and CEO of PolymerOhio, in a written statement. “By establishing a ‘polymer portal,’ this important collaboration makes available to Ohio’s polymer companies a variety of computational methods that will cost-effectively help increase their competitiveness in the global marketplace.”

For more info on the new group, read the full article at IndustryWeek.

>>Tata Group Continues Push Towards Commercial Applications

Just six months after announcing its number four supercomputer “Eka,” the Computational Research Laboratories at Tata Group has leaked details on several pilot projects dedicated to developing commercial applications. The application areas will span a wide variety of subjects including aerospace and aerodynamics, automotive design, academics, animation and weather forecasting.

“CRL is working on several pilot projects. It is the question of the right application software being ported, tested and working on that hardware,” sources said.

Naturally, Tata will utilize several of these applications internally. Tata Motors and Tata Elxsi certainly have applicable use cases. However, Tata is predicting that much of the direct revenue from the applications will come from outside the company. This is not surprising considering the recent announcement from Boeing that they have geared up to use Eka.

Keep an eye on this one. Tata is an economy of scale that can sink millions of dollars into projects and subsequently suffocate the competition.

For more info on the leak, read the full article at The Financial Express.

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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].