Last week, the rhetorical one-two punch of the Intel® HPC Developer Conference and Supercomputing 2017 offered global HPC aficionados new insights into the direction of advanced HPC technologies, and how those tools will empower the future of discovery and innovation. In case you missed it, here is a breakdown of all the action!

The Intel® HPC Developer Conference 2017 kicked off the week with 700+ attendees hearing industry luminaries share best practices and techniques to realize the full potential of the latest HPC tools and approaches. Intel’s Joe Curley, Gadi Singer, and Dr. Al Gara took the main stage and offered a thought-provoking keynote outlining the intertwined futures of HPC and AI. As individuals who are helping architect the future of HPC, the three speakers discussed the adaptation of AI into workflows, technological opportunities to enable it, and the driving forces behind the future range of architectures and systems and solutions.  Attendees also gained hands-on experience with Intel platforms, obtained insights to maximize software efficiency and advance the work of researchers and organizations of all sizes, and networked with peers and industry experts. Watch the Intel HPC Developers Conference website as we publish the videos and multiple technical sessions over the next few weeks.

Then with the kickoff of SC17, Intel announced outstanding industry acceptance results for Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and Intel® Omni-Path Architecture (Intel® OPA). Intel also provided additional insights into AI, machine learning and the latest HPC technologies.

Intel detailed how Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors have delivered the fastest adoption rate of any new Intel Xeon processor on the Top500¹. The latest processor surpasses the previous generation’s capability with a 63% improvement in performance across 13 common HPC applications, and up to double the number of FLOPS per clock².  On the November 2017 Top500 list, Intel-powered supercomputers accounted for six of the top 10 systems and a record high of 471 out of 500 systems. Also, Intel powered all 137 new systems added to the November list.

To date, 18 HPC systems utilizing the new processors reside among November 2017’s Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, each delivering total performance surpassing 25 petaFLOPS. Other organizations using the new Intel Xeon Scalable processors at the heart of their HPC systems report substantial boosts in system speed, resulting in 110 world performance records1.

In addition to the processors, Intel OPA momentum continued with systems using Intel OPA delivering a combined 80 petaFLOPS, surpassing the June 2017 Top500 numbers by nearly 20%. Among those organizations using 100Gb fabric for their Top500 HPC systems, Intel OPA now connects almost 60 percent of nodes³.

The demos in Intel’s booth allowed attendees to see how the power of these technologies enables advancements across the HPC industry. Taking center stage at the Intel’s booth was a virtual-reality motorsports demonstration where visitors experienced the power of advanced technology which will enable the next generation of vehicles.

Attendees seeking a deeper dive into the technologies joined “Nerve Center Sessions” at the Intel pavilion where they gained cutting-edge insights from industry luminaries and joined the presenters for small table discussions afterwards.

With recent AI advancements, are humans the only ones making “intelligent” decisions? Intel Fellow Pradeep Dubey, who is also the Director of Parallel Computing Lab presented Artificial Intelligence and The Virtuous Cycle of Compute. He took the opportunity to explain how the convergence of Big Data, AI, and algorithmic advances transform the relationship between humans and HPC systems.

In case you missed the conference this year you can get more detail from Intel’s SC17 page and follow Intel on Twitter @intelHPC for ongoing insights. And to learn more about the latest Intel HPC and AI technologies, check out www.intel.com/hpc.

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¹ https://newsroom.intel.com/news/sc17-intel-boasts-record-breaking-top500-position-fastest-ramp-new-xeon-processor-list/

² Up to 1.63x Gains based on Geomean of Weather Research Forecasting – Conus 12Km, HOMME, LSTCLS-DYNA Explicit, INTES PERMAS V16, MILC, GROMACS water 1.5M_pme, VASPSi256, NAMDstmv, LAMMPS, Amber GB Nucleosome, Binomial option pricing, Black-Scholes, Monte Carlo European options. Results have been estimated based on internal Intel analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel® microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more information go to http://www.intel.com/performance/datacenter.

³  Intel estimate based on Top500 data and other public sources