SC12 Promises Super Surprises

By Frank J. Ohlhorst

For the last 24 years, the Supercomputing Conference has been charged with bringing the best and brightest minds in supercomputing together in an event that explores advanced technology, predicts the future, and delivers an educational experience from which even the most jaded of computer enthusiasts could benefit.

In addition to keynotes and presentations, representatives from leading technology companies will demonstrate their products on the show floor at SC12.

Taking place Nov. 10-16 in Salt Lake City, SC12 features a keynote speech by world-renowned theoretical physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku, who will offer insights on physics of the future and how the revolutionary developments in medicine, computers, quantum physics and space travel will forever change our way of life, and alter the course of civilization itself.

SC12 will also feature talks by supercomputing leaders from industry, government and academia, who will detail such critical events as the trials and tribulations of siting two new large scale systems (LLNL’s Sequoia and ORNL’s Titan), delve into how energy consumption is becoming the dominant issue for supercomputing systems, and detail important algorithmic advances.

In addition to keynotes and presentations, representatives from leading technology companies will demonstrate their products on the show floor at SC12.

  Other presentations will include a thesis on how computer architecture trends will shape future simulation and large-scale data systems,  and how the latest advances in compiling will benefit accelerators. Other presentations of note include talks that detail scientific advances that have been achieved through large-scale simulations.

Emphasis on Education

Of course, there is a great deal more to SC12 than talks and presentations “educational opportunities abound. The conference offers tutorials that will deliver new content and insights on a variety of engineering topics. Examples include analyzing parallel code performance, OpenMP parallel programming, using ParaView for large-scale visualization, Hands-on introduction to OpenMP, mastering Parallel IO, using OpenACC compilers,  understanding InfiniBand, big data analytics, and more. The tutorial sessions are geared to be interactive “and in some cases, hands-on.

But Wait, There’s More

The exhibit hall, which will be open Nov. 12-15, will feature dozens of vendors, universities, organizations and agencies “including NASA, HP, NVIDIA, INTEL and others. Exhibitors will be offering hands-on demonstrations, announcements of new products, tips and tricks, and other collateral that is sure to benefit the HPC community.

Attendees will also have access to panels, workshops,  tutorials, invited talks and “Birds-of-a-Feather” (BOF) sessions that are among the most popular sessions of the SC Conference Series. The BOF sessions provide a non-commercial venue for conference attendees to discuss mutual interests within the HPC community, with an emphasis on audience-driven discussion,  professional networking and grassroots participation.

Frank Ohlhorst specializes in creating content for many leading technology publications. Contact him via [email protected].

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Extreme Networks

HP

Intel

NVIDIA

RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science

SC12

Swiss Federal Institute for Technology