Feature Audio Interview: IBM’S Don Grice

The Exascale Report interviews IBM’s Don Grice, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Chief Engineer for Road Runner.

Click Here for the Audio Interview with Don Grice

Don addresses the following questions:

The Exascale Report (TER): Back in November, IBM talked about a
breakthrough in allowing chips to communicate at faster speeds using
pulses of light – and it was said that this photonics technology could
boost processing capabilities to a million trillion calculations per
second, an exaflop. Has there been any substantial progress in this
area – and do you still think this could be a key factor in exascale
development?

TER: What’s the timeframe we are looking at for this type of research
– and are there implications beyond the quest for exascale?

TER: Can you tell us more about IBM’s exascale research labs?

TER: What is IBM’s view of Co-Design, an approach many have said is
absolutely essential to achieving exascale computation, and are your
teams involved in any co-design efforts related to exascale research?

TER: How is IBM organized around exascale? Where is the ownership?

TER: Where does Blue Gene fit in the exascale landscape?

TER: Community leaders have stated for quite some time that compilers
would likely be a critical component to actually achieving exascale
levels of computation. What is your position on this today – is there
anything you can share with our readers regarding compiler research with
an eye to exascale?

TER: At what point do you see Cloud Computing playing a role in
exascale computing? Do you see their paths converging?

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