Your SC08 Proxy

Since corporate travel is becoming very tight in the current economic climate, This InTech Blogger will be attending the SC08 Super Computing Conference in Austin as your proxy from Nov 17-21. Check out the program and exhibit listings and comment here if you have specific requests for more information, reports from the field or are just generally curious. Be watching here during the conference for daily blog updates about news, announcements and general de-bunking. If you are also going to be attending the conference, be sure to comment here or else email me directly so that we can be sure to cross paths in person.

HPC in a box

Has your business been avoiding HPC because you lack the expert knowledge to install and maintain clusters? Have you been itching to run simulations and gain some competitive edge, but the world of job schedulers, mpi and other "standard" HPC methods was a new world of pain and confusion? A new solution may be on your horizon. this week Velocity Micro announced a new line of Visual Supercomputer workstations. With the power of a small supercomputer in a single box, preloaded with NVIDIA hardware and software, this is a turnkey solution without clustering, grids or other complex HPC elements. With pricing that looks to range from 1500$ to 6000$ and compute power that ranges up above 3 teraflops, this little boxes will suit many small to mid size business needs without breaking the bank. I am thinking of putting one on my Christmas list, so if you get one and have a review or comments, please speak up here.

Real Life Simulation Pitfalls in the data center

One of the current trends in simulation software is to use CFD fluid dynamics models to model heat dynamics in computer data centers. In the era of pushing for cost savings in every corner, being able to lower the cooling bill for your computer room is an easy sell to management. But be careful that the simulations that you use are based on actual measurements taken by someone crawling around the data center and not just averages built in to the program, or you will likely not be able to deliver on the savings you promised management. Kenneth Bill at Forbes.com reminds us that simulations must be grounded with real life measurements in this good article.

Why do you use parallel programming- or not?

There are lots of reasons people choose to use parallel programming- not all of them wise. This article by Michael Wolfe gives excellent insight into the current status of parallel algorithms and a call for better education of programmers in the field. What criteria do you use when deciding if a problem will benefit from the use of parallel programming? How do you pick the staff who will solve the problems?

Simulation Life Cycle Management

At the heart and soul of this excellent article is the following quote:

"For simulation to be truly effective as an integral part of the product development cycle, the processes, authoring tools, data, and resulting intellectual property associated with simulation must be shared, managed and secured as strategic business assets."

As simulation practices grow, businesses need to put in place methods and tools which will allow them to validate and re-create simulation results. How does your business manage simulation methods and data? What gaps are you struggling to fill? What hurdles are you finding the hardest to overcome?

Digital versus Physical Modeling

This article in PD&D does an honest assessment of the use of software for digital modeling- its advantages and its limitations. What it misses is the fact that you CAN have systems that allow you to do full VR immersion and handle the parts.. without too much crazy investment. Truth is, nothing is ever going to replace that final physical prototype build- but modeling can eliminate many iterations of physical builds. If you had one of those installed, would you really stop building parts to see interactions, or would this save you one more round of prototype building?

Microsoft HPC manufacturing vertical

Microsoft, who has an HPC platform offering, has a vertical focused on manufacturing- with special emphasis on automotive, Oil&Gas and Aerospace. What I cant tell is if they are focusing on those areas because that is where their initial contacts already were, or if they really believe those are the best targets. Since HPC is strong in many other areas of manufacturing ( Proctor and Gamble immediately springs to mind), I hope they are not missing the boat. Let's hope they just need to grow in this area and are open to supporting lots of new areas of manufacturing. If you are a manufacturer in an area outside of their current focus, contact them and let us know how they respond.