Archives for September 2012

Video: How Big is the Universe?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dne6rnITayI Our Video Sunday feature continues with this BBC Horizon special on How Big is the Universe? Horizon follows the cosmologists who are creating the most ambitious map in history – a map of everything in existence. And it is stranger than anyone had imagined – a Universe without end that stretches far beyond what […]

Terrel on Getting Started With Python in HPC

Over at the Codematician blog, TACC’s Andy R. Terrel has written an excellent introduction to learning, speeding, and scaling Python for HPC. Despite all the great features outlined above, the (mis)perception is that Python is too slow for HPC Development. While it is true that Python might not be the best language to write your […]

Cambridge Researchers to Leverage New Competency Center Ahead of Xeon Phi Release

Over at TechWeek Europe, Max Smolaks writes that Dell and Intel have announced plans to open two Product Centers of Competence at the University of Cambridge to serve as testbeds for Xeon and Xeon Phi processors. The aim is to prepare the scientific community for the launch of the first generation of the Xeon Phi […]

The Exascale Timeframe: 2020 – 2022

Presentations from a number of the technology leaders now show the stretch goal for achieving a working exascale system has moved out to 2020. Most of them quickly add that 2022 is perhaps even more realistic.

Just to clarify for our readers, 2018 was never a guaranteed delivery date for an exascale system. While some companies have stated they will have an exascale system by 2018, that’s about as credible as saying “we can build an exascale system today if price and power consumption don’t matter.”? Well, they do matter.

2018 was a stretch goal. It was a target to rally the entire industry and to give the race a sense of urgency. It was chosen based on what some people believed was achievable – in the broadest sense of the word.

Interview: Seeking Your Customers for HPC Innovation Excellence Awards

Last year, IDC rolled out their HPC Innovation Excellence Awards designed to recognize noteworthy achievements in high performance computing. Nominations are due Oct. 22, 2012, so I caught up with IDC’s Chirag Dekate to learn more. insideHPC: Why did IDC create Innovation Awards? Chirag Dekate: The HPC Innovation Excellence Award Program was created to showcase […]

Slidecast: Adapteva Uses Kickstarter to Fund Parallella Project

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taAG9QNWLNo In this slidecast, Adapteva Founder & CEO Andreas Olofsson describes the new Parallella project, an open-source development platform for low-power parallel computing. In an attempt to finance the project, the company is launching Parallella as a Kickstarter campaign so that the development platform can be offered for only $99 dollars. Read the Full Story […]

A ‘Maverick Fabric’ for Big Data Analytics

Over at Network World, Gnodal CEO Bob Fernande writes, just as in HPC clusters, plain old Ethernet doesn’t cut it for Big Data Analyitics. He then proposes a different approach with a new “maverick fabric.” Such a fabric should have a way to eliminate network congestion within a multi-switch Ethernet framework to free up available […]

DDR4 Memory: Twice the Speed, Less Power

By Iain Thomson • Get more from this author The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has published the specifications for the next generation of synchronous DDR memory, which promises to double the speed of DDR3 while requiring less power to operate. The publication of the JEDEC DDR4 standard represents the culmination of years of dedicated effort by […]

Initial Tests of Blue Waters Supercomputer Excite Scientists

Barbara Jewett writes that a brief but tantalizing test run of the Blue Waters sustained petascale supercomputer earlier this year has left researchers eagerly awaiting full deployment. The Blue Waters Early Science System (BW-ESS) was only about 15 percent of the full machine as it consisted of 48 cabinets with 4,512 XE6 compute nodes and […]

For High Frequency Trading, Speed Limits Are Not the Answer

Over at the all-new Quartz Magazine, Simone Foxman writes that, rather than trying to outlaw High Frequency Trading, regulators should learn how to better regulate it so that long term investors can benefit. The European Parliament’s decision to put an arbitrary speed limit on HFT, though, is misguided. ”Just because you slow the order down […]