Conference Reports

The Supercomputer (SC) show is always a highlight for HPC people. It's a chance to see old friends in the HPC world, to make new ones, and to see what new stuff companies are announcing. This year's show at Tampa was a bit bland in my opinion. There was no real big theme or announcement. Tamp may sound like a great place, but more on that later.

Regardless of the ho hum SC06, there are always a few good nuggets to talk about. In this wrap-up I'll talk about what I saw at the show and what my opinions are. Please feel free to disagree or tell me what you thought was worthwhile. You can also hear Doug and I discuss SC06 and interview the likes of Don Becker and Greg Lindahl on ClusterCast.

Monday Nov. 13, 2006, was the "gala" opening when all the exhibitors try to out-do one another with cool booths, giveaways, loud speakers, and other bold and many times obnoxious attempts to gain attention. Gala night at SC06 was no different. :)

(Update 11/17/06-9:30AM) The return from sunny Tampa took me right into some nasty weather as I flew into Philadelphia. It was very cool seeing the storm front from above and afar (super cells and all). Once we flew into the storm my mood changed, however. As we touched down people began clapping. A bit premature I thought. Going 200 mph on wet concrete is not my idea of "we made it". We did stop, at which point the clapping had subsided so that everyone on the plane could turn on there cell phones and announce to someone (anyone) they had landed. How we lived without cell phones is beyond me. In any case, I'll be updating our coverage later today. Jeff and I have plenty things to say. Jeff's Day 2 Blog is up and go sign up at ClusterCast to get notified when the SC06 cast is ready. We have interviews from Don Becker, Greg Lindahl, and others. We also will be posting a cast of the Open Source Panel as well.

Ah, we meet again at the Supercomputer Conference (SC). This year it's in lovely and warm Tampa Florida. I wanted to start my SC06 blog by talking about some of the pre-conference press releases that I have seen that I think are significant. I did bring a camera this year so I hope to also post some pictures from the floor (or the bar). More importantly, however, I have managed to locate about a half-dozen or so Starbuck's around my hotel and the conference area. This is in stark contrast to SC05 in Seattle when I had an extremely difficult time locating a Starbucks anywhere in Seattle :)

Introduction

The SC conference is always a lot of fun because there are so many cool new things at the show, you get to see people that you have only emailed, you get to see old friends, and you get to "geek out" without too much grief from your family. This year's show was no exception. It was the largest SC conference ever and had lots of new announcements and even included a large presence from Microsoft. Of course, Cluster Monkey has already commented about this turn of events.

This year's SC was a good show. I didn't get to any of the presentations, but I did try to see as much of the show floor as I could. So I want to share with you what I saw and what I learned in talking with the various vendors. However the show floor was huge so I may have to rely on press releases to get me over the hump.

In addition to this summary, which is by no means a complete synopsis of the show, check out Joe Lanman's Blog as well.

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