“I saw that Chile has made significant progresses in a Latin America context. Furthermore, we share similar concerns and aims with highly developed countries”. With these words, Susana Cabello, project manager of the National Laboratory for High Performance Computing (NLHPC) of Center for Mathematical Modeling of Universidad de Chile (CMM) summarized her visit to the Supercomputing 2014 (SC14), the leading conference worldwide for High Performance Computing (HPC) in New Orleans.
The Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) travelled to New Orleans to visit the Supercomputing 2014 (SC14), the 26th anniversary of the leading conference worldwide for High Performance Computing (HPC). This once-year opportunity, which was held between 16th and 21th November 2014, is a chance to showcase, share and discover the latest research in this field.
With a bandwidth of 1.5 Terabits it also became the hub for the world´s fastest computer network. Storage and analysis were words widely discussed. With a show floor equivalent of six soccer fields, the largest in the SC´s history, the program offered technical papers, tutorials, posters and birds of a feather sessions (informal meetings of people with common interests without any draft agenda in advance).
An issue to be solved within HPC is the fact that fundraising is nowadays not an easy task. The creation of alliances between countries and the support of government agencies were some of the measures proposed to attract funds.
Another problem addressed at SC14 was the working force, since the number of people with specialized knowledge in this domain is limited. “Courses and seminars are organized at NLHPC in order to train our users how to make the best use of our supercomputer Leftraru. HPC is a relative new domain and its studies are not widely implemented at universities “, pointed out Cabello.
The event showed that there is much work still to be done in this area, like bringing HPC to a wider range of applications and with a far-reaching impact. “The SC14 theme, HPC Matters, reflects a growing effort to draw connections between the HPC community and the society. So, the private market shall use it as a tool for innovation, not as a way to reduce costs”, added Cabello. For instance, it is being already used for 3D images at cinema as well as for computational epidemiology, which develops simulations that can help in planning and responding in case of health issues. For the industry of oil and gas, HPC plays also an important role, as it turns the complexity of oil drilling and pumping from underground wells into an easier and more efficient process.
Climate change was another focal point at SC14. Thus, NASA unveiled a new climate model, which visualizes how carbon dioxide flows around the world thanks to intensive data analysis obtained with HPC.
Undoubtedly, a spotlight of the event was the launch of the TOP500, the ranking of the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world. The Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, was named the world’s top supercomputer for the fourth time.
