ISC preview

The International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) is Europe's leading conference and exhibition on high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis.

Allinea Software

Allinea Software (www.allinea.com) will be demonstrating its software development tools for HPC. Allinea DDT, the Distributed Debugging Tool, is ideal for debugging MPI applications - from development clusters to large parallel systems - with high levels of memory debugging and several features for simplifying the complex task of parallel debugging at scale. Allinea's Optimization and Profiling Tool, OPT, is helping users to scale applications to new heights - with MPI tracing and complete function profiling. OPT's directed approach to optimisation allows users to find the root of performance problems easily.

Allinea Software

AMD

AMD (www.amd.com) will be showing it third-generation AMD Opteron processors for servers and workstations. The quad-core processors offer high levels of performance per watt through Direct Connect Architecture technology.

Also on show will be AMD’s ATI FireGL 3D graphics accelerators and the new ATI FireMV multi-view 2D display acceleration cards for workstations. The accelerators offer high levels of performance, innovative features and excellent visual fidelity for the most demanding workstation users.

AMD will also be showcasing its stream computing solutions, including the AMD FireStream 9170, a GPU with double-precision floating point, along with its comprehensive Stream Computing Software Stack.

AMD

Barcelona Supercomputing Center

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (www.bsc.es) will be showing sample work being undertaken by its computer, life and earth sciences departments, alongside external projects. BSC experts will be on hand to explain the large scientific applications run on the Spanish supercomputer MareNostrum and on the rest of the nodes of the Spanish National Supercomputing Network. The BSC also undertakes several projects for well-known companies in the IT sector.

Barcelona Supercomputing Center

ClusterVision

ClusterVision (www.clustervision.com) is specialist in the design, implementation and support of small- and large-scale computer clusters. Its clustering technology provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional supercomputers by connecting multiple computers to form a unified powerful computing system.

ClusterVision's team of experts has designed and built some of the largest and most complex computational, storage and database clusters in Europe. With a background in applied scientific research and practical experience with a wide range of HPC technologies, the team understands customers' requirements and provides tailor-made solutions.

ClusterVision will demonstrate its next-generation cluster management system, the ClusterVisionOS. This is one of Europe's most widely used cluster management tools, with thousands of users across the continent. It enables highly effective and user-friendly management of clusters via a convenient GUI and includes features such as image management, queuing systems, monitoring, development environment, and various MPI and scientific libraries.

ClusterVision

EGI (European Grid Initiative)

The EGI (European Grid Initiative) (www.eu-egi.eu) has been set up to establish a sustainable grid infrastructure in Europe. Driven by the needs and requirements of the research community, it is expected to enable the next leap in research infrastructures, thereby supporting collaborative scientific discoveries in the European Research Area.

The EGI Organisation is expected to start its operations in 2010. The EGI Design Study project defines and implements the EGI Organisation in terms of its functions and organisational structure. The project, which runs from September 2007 until November 2009, is financed by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme.

Objectives and visions of the EGI will be presented at the exhibition. Visitors are invited to come and discuss with the representatives of the EGI Design Study preparatory team. Project director Dieter Kranzlmüller will hold a presentation on grids and supercomputers during the HPC Challenges and Opportunities session as part of the accompanying conference.

EGI (European Grid Initiative)

EPCC

EPCC (www.epcc.ed.ac.uk) is a European centre of expertise in advanced computing research, technology transfer and the provision of supercomputer services. Based in the University of Edinburgh, it designs and creates computing solutions for industry and provides genuine technology leadership in Europe. It works closely with world-leading computational scientists and is an integral part of a world-class research centre, the School of Physics. It is also one of the major providers of training in HPC in Europe. EPCC provides access to a unique collection of leading-edge computing resources.

EPCC

Finisar

Finisar (www.finisar.com) will be showing its serial 10Gbps active optical cable family, designed to accelerate and support 10Gbps server connectivity. The Laserwire family consists of the Laserwire cable, a high density electrical connector and 10G Ethernet adapter modules to facilitate adoption into legacy transceiver ports. Laserwire utilises fibre optic technology for the transmission of data. while reducing the weight, density and power consumption of copper wire.

Finisar

GPU-Tech

GPU-Tech (www.gpucomputing.eu) will be showcasing Ecoserver 500 at the exhibition, and will demonstrate how to harness computing power of GPUs using the Ecolib API
and optimised libraries for simulation, modelling, 3D visualisation, signal and image processing, mathematical computing and so on.

Ecoserver is a dedicated GPU computing turnkey solution tailored to meet HPC needs and supports a large number of applications under Microsoft Windows, and Linux. Equipped with four standard GPUs, this system is affordable, powerful and eco-friendly with a power/price advantage 20 times better than actual cluster products. Ecoserver consumes almost 10 times less energy than equivalent CPU solutions. The model being showcased provides sustained computing power of up to 500Gflops.

The Ecolib development environment for parallel computing allows users to develop parallel applications that can be used both on a workstation and in a server/cluster environment. Ecolib is currently the only GPU programming platform allowing users the possibility to program applications in double precision.

GPU-Tech

IBM

IBM (www.ibm.com/deepcomputing) will be showing its portfolio of high performance systems. Visitors will be able to see the newest generation of IBM Power servers highlighting POWER6 processors, which are delivering high performance across a broad spectrum of application benchmarks.

Also on show is new IBM BladeCenter, the second generation of cell-based systems from IBM, delivering more performance and scalability than traditional microprocessors. The IBM Blue Gene/PTM solution will be on display, highlighting advances for even greater performance. The recently announced IBM System x iDataPlex, which is a new category of servers from System x. The IBM System x iDataPlex represents a new generation solution, built with a flexible, intelligent design customised to reduce data centre costs, optimise power/cooling, and address growth in the massive scale-out marketplace.

IBM

Isilon System

Isilon System (www.isilon.com) will be demonstrating its new X-Series clustered storage solution featuring independent scaling from 270Mb/second to more than 10Gb/second of throughput and from 6Tb to more than 1.6 Petabyte of capacity for a single file system.

The new model builds on Isilon's reputation for innovation and features Intel Xeon 5130 Processor series, DDR InfiniBand Interfaces and ColdWatt PSU to reduce power consumption by around 20 per cent.

X-Series utilises the OneFST distributed file system providing three layers of traditional storage architectures; file system, volume manager and RAID into one unified software layer, creating a single intelligent fully symmetrical file system that spans all nodes within a cluster.