Vogels on Cloud HPC: You’ll See More Innovation When Cost is not a Barrier

Comment on this story Posted in Cloud HPC, HPC
 

Over at the Times of India, Sujit John caught up with Amazon CTO Werner Vogels to discuss how the Cloud is enabling cost-effective supercomputing applications.

Drug development is one area. Say you want to stop the behaviour of a cancer protein. You need a molecule to do that. But you do not know which of the 20 million molecules you have will work. With a company’s regular processors, it could take up to two months to find a potential molecule candidate. But with the cloud, you can get enough computing capacity to do it in an hour. There is such a drug development work that his happening through Schrodinger (which develops software algorithms for pharma research) and CycleComputing (which executes big data work on the cloud). The cloud can dramatically reduce drug development time, which is very important for pharma companies.

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Slidecast: Solarflare Processing NICs Do HPC Custom Compute

Comment on this story Posted in Accelerators, HPC, HPC Hardware, Network, Podcast, Rich Report, Video
 

In this slidecast, Solarflare President & CEO Russell Stern describes how the company develops network interface software and hardware to transform the way applications use networks, providing industry-leading application acceleration for the most demanding scale-out compute environments.

Solarflare’s Customized Compute Platform enables users to move critical applications from traditional server processing to AOE’s high-speed processing engine — significantly boosting application performance while providing a transparent interface to the network.

Download the MP3 * Subscribe on iTunes * If Dropbox is blocked, download audio from Google Drive.



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PNNL Computer Model Predicts the Future for Stroke Victims

Comment on this story Posted in Computing Research, HPC
 

Computational biology researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a model for predicting what’s happening during a stroke, how the process evolves over time, the potential outcomes, and the effects of different treatment options.

A functional network model of processes important during neuroprotection and stroke, and how they might interact with each other.

This is the first step in being able to suggest {to health care providers} that if you do X and Y, you’d get a much bigger effect than what you’re currently doing,” said Dr. Jason McDermott, a PNNL computational biologist and lead author on the paper.

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Slidecast: HPC Wales – An Integrated HPC Service

Comment on this story Posted in Cloud HPC, Collaborations, HPC, Podcast, Rich Report, Video
 

In this slidecast, Martyn Guest from HPC Wales describes how the organization provides the region with innovation through collaboration and services for high performance computing.

Our vision is to provide state-of-the-art HPC capability, technology, infrastructure and facilities on a pan-Wales, pan-sector basis, to deliver research innovation, high-level skills development and transformational ICT for wider economic benefit.

Download the MP3 * Subscribe on iTunes * If Dropbox is blocked, download audio from Google Drive.



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ProfitBricks: The Next-Generation of IaaS

Comment on this story Posted in Cloud HPC, HPC
 

Over at Datacenter Knowledge, Jason Verge writes that ProfitBricks “second generation of cloud infrastructure” seeks to differentiate itself with the ability to provide both vertical and horizontal scale, flexibility in the network, and build-your-own virtual datacenters.

Another key part of ProfitBricks’ offering is the Data Center Designer, its software management tool, which has won some fans among early customers. “The Data Center Designer allows our team to focus on our product and not on learning and implementing a string of acronyms and complex setup configurations,” said Profitbricks customer and USpin Founder Ethan Bagley.

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Video: Interview on Energy & HPC with Jack Dongarra and Dona Crawford

Comment on this story Posted in Events, Green HPC, HPC, SC12, Video
 

In this video, Dan Olds from Gabriel Consulting sits down with Jack Dongarra (ORNL/University of Tennessee and Dona Crawford (Assoc Director LLNL) at SC12 to discuss the challenges facing HPC on the road to exascale. Along the way, they describe their TOP500-list-topping systems: Titan and Sequoia.



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Job of the Week: Visualization Specialist at the University of Houston

Comment on this story Posted in HPC, Jobs, Visualization
 

The University of Houston is seeking a Visualization Specialist in our Job of the Week.

TLC2 operates a scientific visualization theater facility that includes a large (better than 4000×2000) video display driven by a compute resource with multiple graphics cards. There are also motion tracking sensors to allow interaction with the display. The Technical Manager will work with other members of the TLC2 team to manage and operate the visualization facilities, including responsibility for the maintenance of the projector/display and its associated compute resources, installation and administration of existing and new software and hardware, and providing technical support to users of the facility.


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As a reminder, we are offering FREE job listings for .EDU and .GOV domains, so email us at info @ insideHPC.com for a special discount code.



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Time-Lapse Video: Construction of Fujitsu Supercomputer at Australian NCI

Comment on this story Posted in HPC, New Installations, Video
 

In this time-lapse video, a Fujitsu Primergy supercomputer is constructed at the National Computational Infrastructure at the Australian National University.

System Specifications:

  • 57,000 cores = 15,000 home PC’s
  • 160 terabytes of RAM = 40,000 home PC’s
  • 10 petabytes of hard disc = 10,000 PC hard drives
  • 1,200 teraflops of peak computational performance

Debuting at #24 in the world in the TOP500 list, this supercomputer is based on technology developed for the ‘K’ computer in Japan, which was until recently the world’s fastest machine.



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How Publicly Funded Research Provides High Returns

Comment on this story Posted in Business of HPC, Computing Research, HPC
 

With the Fiscal Cliff looming, potentially huge Federal budget cuts could gut investments in research and innovation at a time when we need it most. Over at Science Progress, Sean Pool and Jennifer Erickson write that Government research provides a high return on investment.

At a time when economic success in the global market is determined more than ever by the pace of innovation, we cannot afford to reduce our investments in research. As the president said in his State of the Union speech last year, “In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives, it’s how we make our living.” While innovation may be in our national DNA, we can’t take it for granted.

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GPU Testing Program Showing Kepler Speedups of 2X Fermi GPUs or More on Real Apps

Comment on this story Posted in GPUs, HPC, HPC Hardware, Video
 

Over at the Nvidia blog, Can Ozdoruk writes that, due to high demand for the new K20 GPUs, the company’s GPU Test Drive Program provided early access to a number of researchers so they could benchmark their codes.

The results are in. Two-thirds of the users (65 percent) who took the test drive reported speed-ups of 2x or more, right out of the box, without making any code changes. You can just imagine what they will achieve with a couple code optimizations. And, this was done on a wide range of real scientific applications like GROMACS, GTC and CST, not on synthetic benchmarks, showing how the new Kepler GPUs can make an immediate impact on research.

The GPU Test Drive Program is a free and easy way to find out how Kepler can work for you. You can sign up for the program today. Read the Full Story.



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Brendan Gregg on Thinking Methodically about Performance

Comment on this story Posted in HPC, HPC Software, Tools
 

Over at ACMQUEUE, Brendan Gregg from Joyent writes that performance-analysis methodology can provide an efficient means of analyzing a system or component and identifying the root cause of problems, without requiring deep expertise. Methodology can also provide ways of identifying and quantifying issues, allowing them to be known and ranked.

Methodologies in common use today sometimes resemble guesswork: trying familiar tools or posing hypotheses without solid evidence. The USE Method was developed to address shortcomings in other commonly used methodologies and is a simple strategy for performing a complete check of system health. It considers all resources so as to avoid overlooking issues, and it uses limited metrics so that it can be followed quickly. This is especially important for distributed environments, including cloud computing, where many systems may need to be checked. This methodology will, however, find only certain types of issues—bottlenecks and errors—and should be considered as one tool in a larger methodology toolbox.

This is a nicely-written and detailed feature that is well worth a look. Read the Full Story or Download the PDF.



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Visualization Software from TACC Empowers Humanities Researchers

Comment on this story Posted in Computing Research, HPC, HPC Software, Video, Visualization
 

TACC has released Most Pixels Ever: Cluster Edition, an open source software tool that allows researchers, especially those in the humanities, to create interactive, multimedia visualizations on high resolution, tiled displays.

The goal is to make visualization tools easier for humanities researchers to use,” said Rob Turknett, digital media, arts and humanities coordinator at TACC. “The proliferation of digitized textual, visual and aural resources is a great boon for the humanities, offering opportunities for new kinds of scholarship, but it also brings a new complexity.”

Supported by a startup grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities titled “A Thousand Words: Advanced Visualization for the Humanities,” the software is based on a language called Processing, a programming toolkit that makes it easier for people to create visualizations. The software is already in use at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Simulation Visualization and Real-time Prediction. Read the Full Story.



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Mezzacappa to Lead UT-ORNL Supercomputer Center

Comment on this story Posted in HPC, HPC People, HPC People on the Move
 

Tony Mezzacappa, a leader in the field of astrophysics and supernova science, has been named director of JICS, which operates Titan, the world’s fastest supercomputer. Mezzacappa is a pioneer in the field of supernova science, a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow, and group leader for theoretical physics in the Physics Division at ORNL as well as a joint professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UT.

Dr. Mezzacappa brings unique and extensive experience in computational astrophysics, supernova science and academic vision to the JICS director position,” said UT Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “We are excited for his leadership and the forward-moving direction of the center.”

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Infographic: Why Green Datacenters Matter

3 comments, add yours Posted in Datacenter operations, Green HPC, HPC
 

Over at the Intel CSR blog, Lorie Wigle writes that replacing an old server with a more energy efficient design could save up to 1 ton of carbon emissions.

Click image to expand.

Intel is also exploring other innovative and eco conscious technologies within its data centers. For example, on its Rio Rancho, New Mexico campus, Intel conducted a pilot program with mineral oil cooling. For an entire year, the Rio Rancho servers were completely submerged in vats of mineral oil, which removed any excess heat and in turn, improved cooling for the entire data center. At first thought, the idea of placing technology equipment in mineral oil sounded pretty strange, but the results quickly changed my mind: The mineral oil cooling allowed us to save 7 percent of the server power by removing the fans, and modeling suggests it could result in a 90 to 95 percent reduction in energy use for the overall data center cooling system.

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Moab HPC Suite – Remote Visualization Edition at SC12

Comment on this story Posted in Events, HPC, HPC Software, SC12, Video, Visualization
 

In this video from the Adaptive Computing booth at SC12, company president Michael Jackson presents: Moab HPC Suite – Remote Visualization Edition.

With Moab HPC Suite — Remote Visualization Edition, you can improve the productivity, collaboration and security of the design and research process by only transferring pixels instead of data to users to do their simulations and analysis. This enables a wider range of users to collaborate and be more productive at any time, on the same data, from anywhere without any data transfer time lags or security issues. Users also have improved immediate access to specialty applications and resources‒like GPUs‒ they might need for a project so they are no longer limited by personal workstation constraints or to a single working location.”

Download the whitepaper on Technical Visualization Workload Optimization (PDF).



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