Thursday 10 October 2013

Supercomputing - the reality behind the vision

My opinion piece "Supercomputing - the reality behind the vision" was published today in Scientific Computing World, where I:
  • liken a supercomputer to a "pile of silicon, copper, optical fibre, pipework, and other heavy hardware [...] an imposing monument that politicians can cut ribbons in front of";
  • describe system architecture as "the art of balancing the desires of capacity, performance and resilience against the frustrations of power, cooling, dollars, space, and so on";
  • introduce software as magic and infrastructure and a virtual knowledge engine;
  • and note that "delivering science insight or engineering results from [supercomputing] requires users";
  • and propose that we need a roadmap for people just as much as for the hardware technology.

Read the full article here: http://www.scientific-computing.com/news/news_story.php?news_id=2270.


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