Latest ISC Newsletter

The latest ISC Conference Newsletter has been published with these topics:

· ISC registration hits new record
· Clever move - early bird registration
· BoF sessions scheduled
· Posters selected
· Changes in schedule, HPC and Oil Exploration und GPUSession
· Media sponsors on ISC‘09
· Hamburg tip for attendees

Hurry! ISC early-bird registration rates end on May 25. Registration site.

If you're coming to Hamburg, be sure to attend the Sun HPC Consortium, where early-bird registration rates end May 21. The meeting will take place in Hamburg, Germany on June 21-22, just prior to ISC'09. Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim will once again be keynoting the event.

Clemson Presents CAE Productivity e-Seminar, May 20

Boost your CAE productivity, and break-away from the pack

Join Clemson University as they present their groundbreaking engineering simulations research at their Computational Center for Mobility Systems.

eSeminar: May 20, 2009 at 10am PT

Dr. James Leylek, Executive Director, will discuss several Clemson projects that reduced development costs while speeding up time to market for manufacturers looking for new ways to get to the next level in their product development process. Hear about the state of the art, fully integrated HPC environment at CU-CCMS, created in collaboration with Sun Microsystems, Voltaire and Ansys. Find out how this unique partnership has led to innovative methods that address automotive, aerospace and energy industry business problems.

Participate in this eSeminar and ask questions of the experts on May 20th, 2009 at 10am PT. Register today.

Hurry! Early-bird rates for Sun HPC Consortium Hamburg end May 21

Early-bird registration rates end May 21 for the Sun HPC Consortium. The meeting will take place in Hamburg, Germany on June 21-22, just prior to ISC'09. Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim will once again be keynoting the event.

Who should attend: All Sun scientific, engineering, or research computing customers or anyone interested in high-performance computing on Sun technologies. Each meeting is designed to address a wide range of intrests from application developers to CIOs and VPs of Research. Register today!

Sun HPC Consortium Hamburg Publishes Agenda, June 21-22

The Sun HPC Consortium has published their agenda for their next meeting in Hamburg, Germany on June 21-22, just prior to ISC'09. Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim will once again be keynoting the event.

Who should attend: All Sun scientific, engineering, or research computing customers or anyone interested in high-performance computing on Sun technologies. Each meeting is designed to address a wide range of intrests from application developers to CIOs and VPs of Research.

Hurry! Early-bird registration rates end May 21, so register today!

Al Gore to Keynote SC09

Inside HPC is reporting that former Vice President Al Gore will keynote the SC09 conference this November in Portland:

"Gore is a long time advocate of the power of technology and its transformative effects on our society. During his time in Congress (he served as both a Representative and Senator from 1977 through 1993) Gore was one of the Atari Democrats, a group of legislators focused on technological issues. Internet pioneers Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf have written of Gore that, “he was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship.” Gore also sponsored the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, a bill that created the National Information Infrastructure, and held the first congressional hearings on global warming.

SC09 Conference Chair Wilf Pinfold explains that the SC09 Committee’s goal in selecting Gore to keynote this year’s conference was not to push a particular technological or political agenda, but to find the person best-suited to ignite a global conversation about the role that supercomputing will play in addressing the many climate, energy, and social challenges facing our society. Gore will address the conference on Thursday morning, not on Tuesday as regular attendees might have expected. “The schedule was driven by the vice president’s availability, but ultimately we think it is a great move for the conference.” Full Story

Using Sun HPC ClusterTools for Open MPI

The True Blue blog has published a quick tutorial on how to set up a simple Open MPI cluster locally for Ubuntu and Solaris:

"I found that using the cluster tools from Sun was much more easy than messing with the MPICH distribution in Ubuntu." Full Story

Hurry! One Week Until Lustre User Group, April 16-17

The Lustre User Group is just week week away. Their Program Agenda is now online.

Register Now!
LUG09 - Seventh Annual Lustre User Group Meeting
April 16-17, 2009
The Cavallo Point Lodge
Sausalito, California

ISC Issues Call for BoF Proposals

As reported on Inside HPC, the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Hamburg, Germany, has issued a call for birds of a feather sessions. Submissions are due April 12. Full Story

ISC'09 Newsletter

The International Supercomputing Conference is out with its latest newsletter. Topics include:

· Three parallel sessions and 24 papers - Scientific Program is now online
· In depth sessions, Part two – Best use of Clouds
· Show your late-breaking results on ISC’09
· Reminder: BoF proposals due by April 12
· ISC is in 2009 an even better value
· Nightlife – Experience Hamburg’s lovely corners

As a reminder, ISC will feature a keynote by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. Full Story

Interview: ISC'09 Moves to Hamburg

HPC Wire interviews ISC Chair Hans Meuer about moving the conference to Hamburg this June:

"We held ISC in Dresden for the past three years, and we were very successful there. For example, in 2008 we had 1,375 participants -- more than twice as many as attended ISC 2005, our last year in Heidelberg. The main reason for relocating to Hamburg this year was the lack of space for our constantly expanding exhibition. Through the art of improvisation, we were able to squeeze more exhibitors into the space in Dresden from 2007 to 2008. But for ISC'09, we wanted to be able to accommodate the space requests from both our existing and potential exhibitors. So, after three great years in Dresden we find ourselves in Hamburg, where we will most likely stay for the next two years as well." Full Story

Save the Date: Sun HPC Consortium Hamburg, June 21-22

Save the date--The Sun HPC Consortium will be held on June 21-22 in conjunction with ISC09 in Hamburg, Germany.

The Sun High Performance Computing Consortium is an independent, volunteer-organized, international group of member organizations that own or use Sun computer systems with emphasis on high-performance, technical computing, and visualization.

Who should attend: All Sun scientific, engineering, or research computing customers or anyone interested in high-performance computing on Sun technologies. Each meeting is designed to address a wide range of intrests from application developers to CIOs and VPs of Research. Registration Site

ISC09 Newsletter

The folks at the International Supercomputing Conference have just released their latest newsletter. Here are the topics of the current issue:

· Online registration for ISC’09 is now open
· Drill down – In-depth sessions give a detailed view
· Want to talk with like-minded colleagues at ISC? Suggest a BoF!
· ISC Info at your fingertips
· Nightlife – Hamburg’s variety has no limits

As reported here on the Watercooler, ISC will feature a keynote by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.

HPC Experts Offer Workshops on Cluster Migration and Administration

Sun, Bioteam, Exludus, and Univa UD will host HPC workshops in the Bay Area on March 17 and 18:

The March 17 Migration Workshop is a free half-day session that provides participants with access to valuable tools and knowledge about upgrading from commercial cluster schedulers such as Platform LSF to a more cost-effective and complete environment. This workshop includes a detailed discussion of the differences between schedulers, a look at the benefits of core optimization, and an open Q&A session with leading experts in HPC.

The March 18 SGE Admin Training Course is aimed at making cluster administrators more experienced, comfortable and productive with Sun Grid Engine (SGE). Led by recognized SGE expert Chris Dagdigian from BioTeam, the hands-on session is intended to provide full coverage of SGE administration in a small, highly interactive setting.  Full Story

Seminar: Lustre Advanced Administration and Support, April 15

Special Course Available: Lustre Advanced Administration and Support
April 15, 2009
The Cavallo Point Lodge
Sausalito, California

For the first time ever, a special seminar on Lustre Advanced Administration and Support will be offered on April 15 before the Lustre User Group meeting. This seminar is designed for people who already have a good understanding and and experience with the Lustre File System. The class will cover a host of advanced architectural and support techniques. Space will be limited for this course and tuition discounts will be offered for LUG attendees.

Register now for the Lustre Advanced Administration and Support Seminar. LUG attendees will get a special discount on course registration.

See you at LUG09!

If you have any questions or interest about LUG09, please contact us at
LUG2009@sun.com

Interview: SC09 Conference Chair Wilf Pinfold

SC09 in November will be the largest conference ever in Portland. Sun Blogger Rich Brueckner sat down with Wilf Pinfold, Conference Chair, to get a first look at what we can expect to see at the show:

As Conference Chair for SC09, what are the primary goals for the conference?
First we intend to build on and strengthen the traditional foundations of the conference; the technical program, exhibits and the community programs. For the technical program we plan to add a track to give more time to the exceptionally high quality papers we receive each year.  For the conference exhibits, We've implemented a process for strategically placing booths to improve the distribution and integration of large, small, research and industry exhibits.   And finally, to build on community programs, we have integrated education, broader engagement and student programs to give educators and students of all national, ethnic, and minority groups more options for participation in the conference and the community.

In addition to strengthening these foundations we are soliciting content in three thrust areas bio-computing, sustainability, and the 3D Internet. These thrusts will help illustrate the ways in which high performance, networking, storage and analytics bring value to our lives on a daily basis.  Full Interview. Don't miss the latest news--Sign up for the SC09 Conference Newsletter.

Andy Bechtolsheim to Keynote ISC'09, June 23 in Hamburg

The ISC'09 International Supercomputing Conference has published their conference program, which will kick off with a keynote by Andreas Bechtolsheim, Sun Microsystems Co-Founder. Full Story

Update: Workshops - Migrating from LSF to SGE & SGE Administration, March 17-18

Workshops: Migrating from LSF to SGE & SGE Administration
March 17-18
Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara
5101 Great America Pkwy
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Phone: 408.200.1234

Sign Up Now for Univa UD's March Workshops!

March 17 - LSF to SGE Migration:
Learn how easy it is to switch to Grid Engine. This free half-day workshop provides participants with access to valuable tools and knowledge about migrating to a more cost-effective and complete UniCluster/SGE environment.

March 18 - Grid Engine Admin Training:
Get hands-on training from SGE experts at BioTeam and Sun. This day-long course is intended to provide full coverage of Grid Engine administration in a highly interactive setting.

Register Today at http://univaud.com/hpc

*LSF to SGE Migration Workshop*
- Attendance is FREE
- All attendees receive the LSF 2 SGE Quick Reference Guide
- All attendees receive SGE Beginners’ Guide for those who are new to Sun
Grid Engine
- Cocktail reception after the workshop

*Grid Engine Admin Training*
- Early bird price before 2/27: $595.00
- Small group setting
- Hands-on training
- Cloud Computing component- learn to build SGE cluster nodes in the cloud

For more information, go to: http://univaud.com/hpc/

Shovel-Ready Social Media for SC09

From the SC09 Community Blog:

The SCxx conferences have a strong community made up of thousands of people who come back to the show year after year. As a new initiative of the SC09 Communications Committee, this blog entry describes a strategy to connect and grow the Supercomputing community using Social Media tools.

"So, how do you engage with Social Medial for SC? Like driving a car,
Social Media is not something you "get" just by reading about it--you
have to learn by doing. Here's how:

Twitter users: Follow our Supercomputing Twitter page at: http://twitter.com/supercomputing

Blog lovers: Read the Supercomputing blog at: http://supercomputing.blogspot.com

Facebook users: join the SC Conference for HPC Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=45024638881

Linked In users: Join the SC09 Linked In Group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1775643/eml-grp-sub/

Aachen Parallel Programming Seminar, March 23-27

You are cordially invited to the following one-week seminar:

Parallel Programming in Computational Engineering and Science
Monday, March 23 - Friday, March 27, 2009
in Aachen, Germany

Introduction
------------
This event continues the tradition of previous annual SunHPC events taking place in Aachen since 2001. These have been organized by the RWTH Aachen University in collaboration with Sun Microsystems. We keep evolving the format over the years. With the shift to Intel Xeon based hardware in our Center, we also shift the focus of the tutorials towards Linux and Windows. After an introduction into the programming development environments and parallel computer architectures, we will cover parallel programming using OpenMP and MPI in Fortran and C/C++ on Linux, Windows and Solaris platforms. Lectures will be complemented by practical exercises.

Starting on Monday afternoon, we give basic introductions into the programming development environments on the platforms available for the lab exercises during the following days. Those who feel comfortable with their favourite platform are welcome to skip these basic introductions on Monday afternoon or to take the opportunity to get hands on the other ones. At our Center we try to serve Linux, Windows and Solaris equally well. Registration site

Canadian Seminar in High Productivity Computing: March 10-11

Our friends at HPCVL are sponsoring an Executive Round Table seminar on High Productivity Computing. The events will take place March 10 in Toronto and March 11 in Vacouver.

High Performance Computing has transformed into High Productivity Computing, and has become so much more than just a scientific tool. Today, HPC is used as a critical tool in enterprise environments, by virtually every major commercial industry, allowing companies to save costs and speed time to market quicker than their competition. Companies from all industries are using HPC techniques to design faster and determine what products to ship when and where. Why are they using HPC? What does it give them? What can it do for YOUR business?

You are cordially invited to join Marc Hamilton, Vice President, Americas Systems Practice, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and John Fragalla, Principal Technologist - HPC, Sun Microsystems, Inc. for an Executive Breakfast session. We will explore these critical questions and how they can impact your business. In addition, you will hear a real life example from Dr. Ken Edgecombe, Executive Director of HPCVL (High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory).

• A clearer understanding of what HPC is and the environment it's best suited for - information to help you decide where your next investment will be.


• An understanding of HPC's role in significantly reducing cost for all industries - how can this knowledge impact your next business decision?


• The practical applications where HPC can be used, in all areas of your business, ranging from cheque processing, graphic rendering, weather simulations to seismic processing, to name a few - find the solution that best fits your budget.

Registration Site

Save the Date: Lustre User Group 2009, April 16-17

LUG09 - Seventh Annual Lustre User Group Meeting
April 16-17, 2009
The Lodge at Golden Gate
Sausalito, California

Sun Microsystems welcomes you to the Lustre User Group, the premier event for learning new technical information, acquiring best practices, and sharing knowledge about Lustre technology. LUG09 is a once-a-year opportunity for users to get answers, advice, and suggestions regarding their specific Lustre implementations.

Attendees will have access to experts and peers who will share their real-world experiences. With updates on the community development project, Birds of a Feather sessions, demos, and tutorials, LUG09 is the perfect opportunity to meet with the Lustre development team and discuss upcoming enhancements and capabilities.

Special Course Available: Lustre Advanced Administration and Support

For the first time ever, a special course on Lustre Advanced Administration and Support will be offered on April 15 before the User Group meeting. This course is designed for people who already have a good understanding and and experience with the Lustre File System. The class will cover a host of advanced architectural and support techniques. Space will be limited for this course and tuition discounts will be offered for LUG attendees.

Call for Presentations

You are invited to submit an abstract to be considered for presentation. This is your opportunity to help the Lustre community by sharing your knowledge and lessons learned from Lustre deployments. Please submit your presentation abstract to LUG2009@SUN.COM by Feb 23.

Links to the LUG09 Registration Site will be posted soon at Lustre.org, so stay tuned for further announcements. If you have any questions or interest about LUG09, please contact us at LUG2009@SUN.COM

See you at LUG09!

Sun to Sponsor HPC Symposium in Kingston, Ontario

Sun is pleased to sponsor the High Performance Computing Symposium, a multidisciplinary conference that focuses on research involving High Performance Computing and its application. Attended by Canadian and international experts and renowned researchers in the sciences, all areas of engineering, the applied sciences, medicine and life sciences, mathematics, the humanities and social sciences, it is Canada's pre-eminent forum for HPC.

Running from June 14-17, 2009, this year's conference is hosted by the High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory, in beautiful and historic Kingston. Kingston, the Limestone City, is a city built on a grand heritage and defined by an exquisite ability to blend the beauty of yesterday with the passion and sophistication of today. All of this in a city that dazzles with soaring 19th century limestone architecture and the amenities of a major centre, but retains the allure of a small town. Conference Site

ISC'09 Newsletter and Call for Papers

With SC09 behind us, the International Supercomputing Conference ISC'09 has just released their latest newsletter and call for papers.

Featuring a keynote by Andy Bechtolsheim, the 4-day conference and trade show at the Congress Center Hamburg will provide a unique platform to learn, network and do business, all under one roof. With over 1,500 attendees and more than 120 exhibitors from over 45 countries expected to attend, ISC’09 is sure to be our biggest and best event yet. ISC'09 Newsletter

Sun HPC Consortium presentations online

Many of the presentations from the November 2008 Sun HPC Consortium in Austin are now online. Great info there. We hope to post the videos of these talks in the coming weeks, so watch this space. Consortium Presentations

Lustre Rocks the TOP500

Sun feels it has a great deal of momentum moving into 2009 for its HPC business. A major push this week is to build on that momentum, and to start to grow awareness of storage as a major part of Sun's HPC strategy.

"More than 40 percent of systems in the Top100 use Lustre," says Andersson of the parallel file storage technology acquired last year by the company, "and that includes 7 of the top 10 systems on the list. Beyond that, 54 percent of the 50 most powerful systems on the Top500 list use Sun's StorageTek tape storage silos." Full Story