By: Sharan Kalwani, Fermilab
With the year 2014 behind us, all my fellow HPC users, practitioners and of course enthusiasts will have reflected upon the conclusion of the last Supercomputing conference, affectionately known to all as SC14. It’s theme was the popular hashtag - #HPCmatters – and to me that represented several important elements. First of all, this is a clear recognition that we are retuning our community’s focus such that it is clear to the world at large, that this is something that makes a difference in people’s lives and by direct impact (borrowing from one of the highlight events title: HPC Impact Showcase) to global society. Earlier efforts were concentrated on developing technologies or merely acknowledging the march of technology, leading to dramatic performance gains. The second aspect was there were less harping on the anxiety towards heading in the ExaScale directions. While several may hasten to point out that efforts have not slackened and I do not even imply that, but to me it demonstrates that we play an undeniable & strong role in helping shape the future and that is why we matter.
The conference keynotes are often the best way to gauge how well the theme is being articulated. I would heartily state that indeed this year it was perhaps the best choice of many possible good selections. In the SC14 HPC Matters Plenary, “The Importance of Supercomputers in Society,” Dr. Eng Lim Goh (SGI) and Piyush Mehrotra (NASA) helped kick this off very well, sharing with us numerous examples of how HPC did matter. I enjoyed the way they made it abundantly inspiring to all of us, and I plan to write about some of those in this forum as well as in ‘Innovative uses of HPC’ in the near future. Perhaps the best speech delivered was that by the made-famous-by-TV Dr. Brian Greene, who many will have seen on ‘The Elegant Universe’ and ‘The Fabric of the Cosmos’ books and series. I did approach this with a bit of trepidation, after all he is a well know theoretical physicist and the topic of string theory gets even the most ardent fan of science into a bit of twist (pun intended). However he did the job well, and thru the use of very rich visual media aids (helped no doubt by HPC engines running in the background or in the past at scores of HPC centers), for the first time, made me feel convinced that there was a great deal to appreciate in this new physics being proposed. It was also gratifying to hear him say, that without HPC none of what he said would have even been possible. Pushing the boundaries of human knowledge at such a dizzying space has never been seen or experienced before, and we owe it all to #HPCmatters!
Having dealt with that, I personally felt that this edition of SC14 was one of the best run and managed of all. Starting with the location, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA or popularly known to everyone as NOLA, was a great choice. The weather was perfect – neither too hot nor too cold. A convention center that had everything in one place, although admittedly, we managed to become a lot healthier in the process– needing to walk to many far flung locations, but usually under the same roof. Let us talk a little bit about the exhibits, since they are a major thrust for 90% of the crowd. I will mention conference swag a bit here, since many of the young HPC attendees always seem to delight in this, but the selfie taking stick was perhaps the most unusual giveaway. That proves to me that we are not a pure nerdy or geeky crowd, but one that accurately mirrors society at large. Of course with every year, USB sticks (or thumb/pen drives as they like to call them in Europe/Asia) grow in capacity with each year; I think 16 GiB was the largest being given away by a certain European booth. But all the exhibits were just the right size, reflecting their sponsor’s degree of commitment to HPC. There were no gaudy booths or exhibits that were over the top. They should continue that trend as it helps keep things nice and desirable. The HPC community is one of the most hardworking bunch of folks and I will also share they do know how to enjoy themselves too. Numerous cultural events were all over the place, but perhaps the boat ride on Sunday, just before the conference, was a nice one. Who can beat the NOLA music, local eats and smell of the river spray thrown up by the huge wooden paddles? A nod to the organizers who held the traditional Thursday night gala, with a brilliant NOLA flavor, complete with Mardi Gras like atmosphere? I enjoyed listening to the palm readers, along with bites of mufulleta sandwiches (a local specialty).
More along the technical side of things, it was very gratifying to see a great deal of technical space devoted to the now prominent issue of cooling and managing the demand placed by HPC centers. Both in terms of exhibit space and panels, the latter was extremely useful to this writer, that the industry is tackling this issue and are actually delivering solutions, a whole variety of them too. This was on Thursday, while on Friday there was also the classic ‘Survivor’ style HPC debate, while a bit silly, was none the less , quite a bit of fun, as it showed we can mix humor and business at the same time. Lastly I would remiss if I did not mention another well attended panel, ROI from Academic Supercomputing, something I intend to follow up on, as this is something which in the writes humble opinion can be used by everyone in the community to rebut and establish themselves against the dreaded lurching pen of the accounting budget cost cutters.
During the week, this writer volunteered time at the SC14 Job Fair and without the aid of objective numbers, was delighted to see (compared to SC13) an almost 4X increase in the activity. Several more potential hiring desks and a huge number of eager candidates, tells me we are past the woes of an economy holding back HPC. I am certain, I will get email telling me that the TOP500 list growth does not seem to indicate that, I would counter that the list reflects a lot of things: technology, spending, latency in HPC spending and the time it shows up, etc. There were major announcements of mind boggling systems that will be delivered in 2016 and 2017, so that should put to rest, fears that HPC is not growing.
In summary, I think it is fair to say that everyone enjoyed SC14 and took away something positive. I look forward to the SC15 edition, which will take place in Austin, Texas (much warmer too!). That should be a very transforming experience!
Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent anyone else.