Comments on: HIV research aside, not everyone happy with the Blue Gene in the UK http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/ HPC News Without the Noise for Supercomputing Professionals | insideHPC Fri, 03 May 2013 04:44:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: John Leidel http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46994 John Leidel Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:51:50 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46994 As HPC becomes more pervasive into mainstream scientific/research culture, I expect we will see more of these stories popping up across the globe. The price tag associated with large compute of any sort is always hard for the politicians [ergo, accountants] to swallow. In many cases they deal exclusively in tangibles, for which scientific research doesn't always produce: hence being "research". :-) As HPC becomes more pervasive into mainstream scientific/research culture, I expect we will see more of these stories popping up across the globe. The price tag associated with large compute of any sort is always hard for the politicians [ergo, accountants] to swallow. In many cases they deal exclusively in tangibles, for which scientific research doesn’t always produce: hence being “research”. :-)

]]> By: John West http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46991 John West Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:43:54 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46991 Brian - I think that's a great example of why Cameron's argument doesn't make sense. I'm going to start using it in my own conversations with these sorts of people. Brian – I think that’s a great example of why Cameron’s argument doesn’t make sense. I’m going to start using it in my own conversations with these sorts of people.

]]> By: Brian http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46960 Brian Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:37:52 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46960 I think the problem here is simply that David Cameron doesn't understand that this isn't so much an IT project as it is a science project. You'd be daft to say one should split up, say, a world-class telescope into smaller components since it's obvious the individual components can't perform the same tasks as the whole, yet those without any knowledge of HPC don't seem to understand that for these types of computational science projects, the same holds true. The whole is, in a sense, greater than the sum of its parts. I'd be interested in knowing more about the types of simulations they intend to run, and whether this was pursued by IBM as a counterbalance to the HECToR (Cray XT4) system which Edinburgh's EPCC is also involved with. I think the problem here is simply that David Cameron doesn’t understand that this isn’t so much an IT project as it is a science project. You’d be daft to say one should split up, say, a world-class telescope into smaller components since it’s obvious the individual components can’t perform the same tasks as the whole, yet those without any knowledge of HPC don’t seem to understand that for these types of computational science projects, the same holds true. The whole is, in a sense, greater than the sum of its parts.

I’d be interested in knowing more about the types of simulations they intend to run, and whether this was pursued by IBM as a counterbalance to the HECToR (Cray XT4) system which Edinburgh’s EPCC is also involved with.

]]> By: John West http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46956 John West Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:24:27 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46956 Rich - first, apologies. Chalk it up to never having been to Edinburgh. The "h" just doesn't live for me. :-) How very interesting that you don't know about the collaboration. The location of the machine was conspicuously absent from everything I found. I wonder if they'll actually run on resources internal to IBM, like at TJ Watson. I got the sense, but again I need to clarify this, but the relationship might be more about code tuning and tweaking rather than about hardware resources. Rich – first, apologies. Chalk it up to never having been to Edinburgh. The “h” just doesn’t live for me. :-)

How very interesting that you don’t know about the collaboration. The location of the machine was conspicuously absent from everything I found. I wonder if they’ll actually run on resources internal to IBM, like at TJ Watson. I got the sense, but again I need to clarify this, but the relationship might be more about code tuning and tweaking rather than about hardware resources.

]]> By: Rich Hickey http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46915 Rich Hickey Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:51:03 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/04/hiv-research-aside-not-everyone-happy-with-the-blue-gene-in-the-uk/#comment-46915 Hey John. It's Edinburgh not Edinburg. Sheesh... You Colonials. :-) It doesn't say where the machine will be located, but no one here knows anything about this collaboration. I'm in the Advanced Computing Facility here outside of Edinburgh (notice the h?) where the existing Bluegene/L is and I just got a bunch of blank looks when I mentioned this article. It'll be intersting to learn more about this. Hey John. It’s Edinburgh not Edinburg. Sheesh… You Colonials. :-)

It doesn’t say where the machine will be located, but no one here knows anything about this collaboration. I’m in the Advanced Computing Facility here outside of Edinburgh (notice the h?) where the existing Bluegene/L is and I just got a bunch of blank looks when I mentioned this article.

It’ll be intersting to learn more about this.

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