DAOS: Scale-Out Software-Defined Storage for HPC/Big Data/AI Convergence

As an all-new parallel file system, DAOS will be a key component of the the upcoming Aurora supercomputer coming to Argonne National Laboratory in 2021. “DAOS is an open source software-defined scale-out object store that provides high bandwidth, low latency, and high I/O operations per second (IOPS) storage containers to HPC applications. It enables next-generation data-centric workflows that combine simulation, data analytics, and AI.”

Optalysys launches FT:X 2000 – The world’s first commercial optical processing system

Today Optalysys announced the FT:X 2000, the world’s first optical co-processor system for Ai computing. “It is a really exciting time in optical computing,” said Dr. Nick New, Optalysys CEO and Founder. “As we approach the commercial launch of our main optical co-processor systems, we are seeing a surge in interest in optical methods, which are needed to provide the next level of processing capability across multiple industry sectors. We are on the verge of an optical computing revolution and it’s fantastic to be leading the way.”

Slidecast: HPC and the Cloud – Announcing the Ellexus Container Checker

In this slidecast, Dr. Rosemary Francis describes the new Ellexus Container Checker, a pioneering cloud-based tool that provides visibility into the inner workings of Docker containers. “Container Checker will help people using cloud platforms to quickly detect problems within their containers before they are let loose on the cloud to potentially waste time and compute spend. Estimates suggest that up to 45% of cloud spend is wasted due in part to unknown application activity and unsuitable storage decisions, which is what we want to help businesses tackle.”

Infinite Memory Engine: HPC in the FLASH Era

In this RichReport slidecast, James Coomer from DDN presents an overview of the Infinite Memory Engine IME. “IME is a scale-out, flash-native, software-defined, storage cache that streamlines the data path for application IO. IME interfaces directly to applications and secures IO via a data path that eliminates file system bottlenecks. With IME, architects can realize true flash-cache economics with a storage architecture that separates capacity from performance.”

Slidecast: For AMD, It’s Time to ROCm!

“AMD has been away from the HPC space for a while, but now they are coming back in a big way with an open software approach to GPU computing. The Radeon Open Compute Platform (ROCm) was born from the Boltzmann Initiative announced last year at SC15. Now available on GitHub, the ROCm Platform bringing a rich foundation to advanced computing by better integrating the CPU and GPU to solve real-world problems.”

Slidecast: Announcing Mellanox ConnectX-5 100G InfiniBand Adapter

“Today, scalable compute and storage systems suffer from data bottlenecks that limit research, product development, and constrain application services. ConnectX-5 will help unleash business potential with faster, more effective, real-time data processing and analytics. With its smart offloading, ConnectX-5 will enable dramatic increases in CPU, GPU and FPGA performance that will enhance effectiveness and maximize the return on data centers’ investment.”

Slidecast: Advantages of Offloading Architectures for HPC

In this slidecast, Gilad Shainer from Mellanox describes the advantages of InfiniBand and the company’s off-loading network architecture for HPC. “The path to Exascale computing is clearly paved with Co-Design architecture. By using a Co-Design approach, the network infrastructure becomes more intelligent, which reduces the overhead on the CPU and streamlines the process of passing data throughout the network. A smart network is the only way that HPC data centers can deal with the massive demands to scale, to deliver constant performance improvements, and to handle exponential data growth.”

Slidecast: How to Make MPI Awesome – MPI Sessions

In this slidecast, Jeff Squyres from Cisco Systems presents: How to make MPI Awesome – MPI Sessions. As a proposal for future versions of the MPI Standard, MPI Sessions could become a powerful tool tool to improve system resiliency as we move towards exascale. “Now that we have brought these ideas to a larger audience, my hope is that we (the Forum) start refining these ideas to fit them into a future release of the MPI standard. Meaning: please don’t assume that exactly what is proposed in these slides are going to make it into the MPI standard.”

Slidecast: Seagate Beefs Up ClusterStor at SC15

In this video from SC15, Larry Jones from Seagate provides an overview of the company’s revamped HPC storage product line, including a new 10,000 RPM ClusterStor hard disk drive tailor-made for the HPC market. “ClusterStor integrates the latest in Big Data technologies to deliver class-leading ingest speeds, massively scalable capacities to more than 100PB and the ability to handle a variety of mixed workloads.”

Podcast: Dell Panels on NSCI and the Convergence of Big Data Coming to SC15

In this podcast, Stephen Sofhauser from Dell describes what’s coming up at the company’s exhibit at SC15 in Austin. With a 50×50 exhibit and two booth theaters, Dell will showcase how customers are using their technology to solve their toughest computational problems. “Our own Rich Brueckner from insideHPC will host a pair of panel discussions in the Dell booth #1009 on Wednesday, Nov. 18.”