2021 Hybrid Beowulf Bash and PID Game

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Written by Douglas Eadline

Published: 09 November 2021

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The 2021 Beowulf Bash has gone hybrid. We were looking forward to a face-to-face event, but the never ending pandemic situation has caused us to change course. In any case, like last year we will have a Zoom based get together with some flash panels to discuss the following interesting topics:

• Composable Computing - Will the next generation of HPC computing be built-to-order at run time? Dynamic infrastructure represents a new way provision just the right amount of bare-metal hardware for your application. This panel will discuss the concept of composable computing and how it can used in HPC.
• RISC-V For HPC Open ISA RISC-V processors are beginning to arrive in many different vertical markets. What are the latest designs and roadmaps to this the new processor for HPC?
• Benchmarking For HPC Since the beginning of HPC, benchmarks, like the Top500, have been historically important. This panel will discuss modern benchmarking strategies and resources in today's changing HPC landscape.

We will also break away and visit the on-site Bash where we will be holding an old-school Bash at a local and possibly respectable establishment. Registration information (for both the Zoom and on-site event) and an event time-line can be found by signing up on the snarky invite. (BTW: We are also collecting some basic demographics on the registration this year.)

Intersect360 Updated HPC Forecast Available

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Written by Number Six

Published: 21 August 2020

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Updated Forcaset Intersect360

HPC and hyperscale analyst Addison Snell from Intersect360 Research gave a presentation on August 6, 2020. The entire presentation and slides are available on Intersect 360 webpage (Thanks i360).

If you are curious how HPC may play out in the COVID-19 pandemic, watch the presentation (including questions at the end). Slides are also helpful, but Addison provides good context . For the impatient, here are the conclusions:

• Demand for high-performance computing endures. HPC is a long-term, stable growth market.
• Regardless of COVID-19, dynamics were shifting toward:
  • Increase in cloud computing, or other cloud-like deployments
  • Increase in government spending
• COVID-19 accelerates both of these trends
• HPC vendors should expect purchases to be delayed in 2020, followed by a boom year in 2021 as sales cycles come back in. However, not all lost revenue is recaptured.
• There is significant risk in this forecast. Two significant factors are:
  1. How long COVID-19 persists as an economic damper.
  2. The health of HPC vendors and their ability to ride out the market instability.

Open, Scalable, and Portable 3D Data Visualization

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Written by Number Six

Published: 03 November 2021

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From the "So That is What My Data Look Like" Department

A new open source, portable, and scalable 3D visualization standard is in the works. Announced by Khronos Group ANARI (Analytic Rendering Interface) 1.0 Provisional Specification for scientific visualization and scalable 3D Data visualization. ANARI will enable users to quickly and easily build a scene description and create 3D images. Most importantly, ANARI doesn’t specify the rendering details; the rendering gets left to the backend engine which provides a simplified way to develop a visualization application with cross-vendor portability including ray tracing. From the announcement:

"The scientific visualization ecosystem includes key visualization application vendors such as VMD, VTK/ParaView, and VisIt that have actively participated in ANARI’s design. There are also early ANARI implementations in development by AMD, Intel and NVIDIA that will provide access to their Radeon ProRender, OSPRay, and VisRTX rendering engines respectively".

The specification is provisional and a full version 1 should be released soon (there is an open SDK available). There is also a good (and short) Overview Video that explains the benefits of ANARI.

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Intersect360 Adjusts 2020 HPC Market Forecast for COVID-19

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Written by Number Six

Published: 01 April 2020

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Press release from Intersect360

HPC and hyperscale analyst firm Intersect360 Research has released a new report guiding its clients that the market for High Performance Computing (HPC) products and services will fall significantly short of its previous 2020 forecast, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The newly-revised forecast predicts the overall worldwide HPC market will be flat to down 12% in 2020.

[Note: Another good article (IT Spending Prognostication During The Great Infection at the Next Platform.]