Friday 21 November 2008
NGS at Supercomputing 2008.
Image courtesy of Neasan O'Neill.
9,000 experts on building, running and using very high-performance computers gathered in Austin for SC08. It's a place where the world's leading computer experts meet to discuss technical challenges, potential breakthroughs, cutting-edge research and job prospects.
Andrew Richards, Executive Director of the NGS, and Claire Devereux represented the NGS among more than 250 exhibitors trying to attract the attention of the audience. Where leading computing and networking companies will show off their latest technology in an extensive exhibit area, the UK National Grid Service (NGS) is able to show off its ability to provide UK researchers with access to these latest technologies in a national facility. The companies are then keen for the NGS to select their technologies in order to be showcased being used by the most advanced users.
Among the highlights of the event was the release of the 32nd edition of the list of the world’s TOP500 supercomputers, where the 1.105 petaflop/s IBM supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory held the top spot it first achieved in June 2008. Roadrunner narrowly fended off a challenge by the Cray XT5 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory called Jaguar which is only the second to break the petaflop/s barrier, posting a top performance of 1.059 petaflop/s.
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