High performance gets greener

SuperComputing 2009

By Rikki Kite

If you enter the SuperComputing show floor, be sure to bring your expo map - the floor is so jam-packed with exhibitors and attendees that you might expect a piece of cheese as a reward for arriving at each booth. With the theme "Computing for a Changing World," the November 2009 event marked the 22nd year for the annual SuperComputing conference.

Figure 1: Microway celebrated its 15th year at SuperComputing and announced updates to its AMD Opteron processor-based Navion server platforms [1].

Meeting of the Minds

The SC promoters claimed that "No other conference brings together this many scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, system administrators, applications developers, and program managers." This bold assessment might be difficult to test, but without a doubt, the SuperComputing show is big and close to the technical edge.

Figure 2: Platform Computing offered free LSF Certification exams at SC09 [2].

Although the exhibition hall flowed with the schwag of corporate IT, inside the conference rooms, the sessions had the feeling of an academic event, with new concepts and big ideas derived from original research. The organizers made a point of seeking out academic offerings, even providing a "Doctoral Showcase" for PhD candidates to present a summary of their research.

The focus of the SC conference is high-performance computing. The 2009 event included "thrust areas," such as bio-computing, sustainability, 3D Internet, disruptive technologies, and the data center of the future. Each of these areas was introduced by speakers and then featured in both the technical program and on the exhibit floor.

Figure 3: Adaptive Computing and Voltaire announced an agreement to integrate Moab Adaptive Computing Suite into Voltaire's Unified Fabric Manager platform [3].

Intel's Justin Rattner gave the opening address on Tuesday, "The Rise of the 3D Internet," and on Wednesday, the Institute for Systems Biology's Lee Hood gave the plenary, followed by the Kennedy Award Presentation. Former Vice President Al Gore gave Thursday's keynote, "Building Solutions - Energy, Climate, and Computing for a Changing World."

Next Year

The SuperComputing conferences provide a unique space for participants of different backgrounds to explore technologies that are changing the evolution of enterprise networks. If you missed SC09, be sure to catch SC10 in New Orleans on November 13-19, 2010 [4].