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Research Studies:
Intel Cluster Ready: Are Clusters Coming of Age?
Intel announced its Intel Cluster Ready program at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden Germany on June 27. The program is essentially an effort to create a de facto standard for cluster implementations based on Intel processors. The development of standards represents a major milestone in the in the life cycle of a technology. They generally occur at the point where expanding the market’s access to a technology becomes as important as developing new innovations in the technology.
We see Intel Cluster Ready signaling a maturation point for clusters within the overall market. This is somewhat similar to getting one’s first car. It is an indication of coming of age, a demonstration of obtaining a certain level of capability, and an important tool for new growth.
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General Business Supercomputing
It's an increasingly common pattern in HPC. A small company bursts onto the scene with an innovative technology that improves productivity for a category of applications. Seeking to lock out competitors by tying up the boost in price/performance for itself, an HPC behemoth wades in and snaps it up in one bite. The democratization of technology has fueled this trend, and Tabor Research expects it to continue to accelerate. Recently it became PeakStream's turn.
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AHPCRC Heads West: Who Wins, Who Loses?
A university-industry-government consortium led by Stanford University recently won a $105 million, five-year contract with the U.S. Army to assume the management of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC). The AHPCRC is an on-going collaboration to improve Army military technology and basic research through the application of High Performance Computing (HPC). From its inception in 1989 until April of this year, the AHPCRC had been managed by Network Computing Services, Inc. (NCSI) and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (UM).
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5 Important Predictions for HPC in 2007
The past few years have seen significant changes in the HPC landscape, due at least in part to the emergence of clustering technologies. Relatively suddenly (by market standards), Intel and AMD replaced RISC processors, Linux unseated UNIX as the dominant operating system, and numerous second-tier vendors established positions in the market.
Today multi-core processors are setting the stage for new market dynamics. The adoption of multi-core processors is not worth predicting - they're coming, like it or not - but it will have a domino effect that brings about major changes in the industry. This Tabor Research document gives five important predictions for High Productivity Computing in 2007.
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Industry Insights:
Ewald Takes the Baton from McKenna in SGI's Race for HPC Markets
On April 10th, Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) announced that Robert H. "Bo" Ewald has been named Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Ewald replaces Dennis McKenna, who has served as SGI's Chief Executive Officer since January 31, 2006. In addition to his role as CEO, Ewald will serve on SGI's Board of Directors.
Tabor Research expected a change in top leadership for SGI. Now that SGI is on a more solid financial footing, it must become operationally effective and profitable.
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Featured Users:
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center http://www.psc.edu/ (PSC) has for 20 years been among the leading centers worldwide in high-performance computing and communication. BigBen, its 22-teraflop Cray XT3, was the first XT3 installed anywhere and is the most powerful tightly-coupled system available via the TeraGrid.
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Texas Advanced Computing Center
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin is a world-class HPC site on the rise. Its 55 Teraflop Lonestar system, which ranked #12 on the most recent Top500 list, is being upgraded, and later this year TACC will add even more power. Thanks to a $59 million NSF grant, TACC will soon become home to "Ranger," the most powerful system on the TeraGrid.
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Quick Questions:
Tabor Research Quick Question Results:
Users: How much of the software in your HPC workflow do you develop and maintain internally?
Arguably the most important concept in computing is the idea of the "stored instruction machine". That is a machine that will perform different tasks based on different sets of instructions that can be loaded into memory and executed by the machine. This concept allows the same basic machines to do tasks ranging from sending pictures of one’s children to friends and relations, to monitoring international monetary exchange rates, to simulating the evolution of the universe. It has also proved to be a major driver in the expansion of technology, markets and economies.
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Users: What processor architecture will you select for your next HPC purchase?
The commodity revolution is a frequent topic in the HPC industry, and Tabor Research wanted to know to what extent it would continue for the next wave of HPC purchases. Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents indicated that they would select x86-64 processor architectures for their next HPC purchase. However, the revolution is not complete. RISC still showed up in second place with a considerable number of responses.
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How important is power consumption in comparing competing technologies?
Not surprisingly, respondents reported that power consumption was an important factor in HPC computer system evaluation and selection. What was surprising was the extent of the landslide victory for power concerns. More than a third of respondents indicated that "Low power consumption is an absolute requirement." This was the leading vote getter. In addition, close to 30 percent of respondents indicated that low power consumption was worth paying a premium for.
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