SC19 Student Cluster Competition - Recap

 SC19 Student Cluster Round Up

The show starts in the usual way, with Henry complaining about snow and us laughing at him. Our special guest, student clusterer extraordinaire Jessi Lanum, complains about recording again with Henry in a definite shot across his bow, to everyone’s amusement.

The group discusses their annual SC19 dinner and the new Henry/Dan bet about the future of RISC-V – check out our last show for the specifics.

We talk about our experiences at SC19, including Henry having to give 19 different presentations in a two-day span, which was a very solid performance. Shahin touches on his annual Dead Architecture Society meeting and the great attendance. We also discuss how many active listeners of Radio Free HPC came up to us – and none of them were armed or threatening at all!

The meat of the show is our discussion of the SC19 Student Cluster Competition. We talk about the student configurations, kicked around the pros and cons of the “small is beautiful” movement in the student cluster competition world. "Does the trend towards fewer-bigger nodes mean a re-emergence and eventual re-victory of SMP over MPP?" wonders Shahin. No records in HPL or HPCG, but some good scores regardless. (It's not proven that the high altitude in Denver was not a factor!)

You’ll have to listen to the show or read Dan’s articles in HPCwire or on www.studentclustercomp.com to get the details – it’s probably a good idea to do both just to make sure you’re fully up to speed.

Why No One Should Ever be Online. Ever.

Henry talks with real anger and sadness about a horrific story of a chain of nursing homes that was attacked by ransomware. These nursing homes now don’t know what medication should go to which patient along with a lot of other problems. Everyone agrees that these malicious criminal idiots are getting worse and that something needs to be done about it pronto.

New Feature Alert!

Things That People Think They Know, But Maybe Don’t

Jessi Lanum’s “Things that people think they know, but maybe don’t” is a new feature on the big broadcast. In this inaugural edition, Jessi asks “What is Exascale and why is it important?” The guys all respond and cover her question like ants on a dead possum.

Catch of the Week

Henry:  Notes that the new Star Wars script was almost sold on Ebay after being filched from a careless actor. Sheesh, is nothing private anymore?

Jessi:  Found a company that is using HPC, AI and WRF to help fight forest fires, which is great, given the wildfire season we’ve seen this year. Shahin also highlights the work at UC San Diego.

Shahin:  The newest Crypto500 ranking is out! Bitcoin has taken over the crypto currency world by latest count, see the white paper here, the slides here, and the Medium article here.

Dan:  Dan’s Catch of the Week is dedicated to you, our faithful set of 16 listeners. He lets you know we’d love it if you reach out to us via Twitter or email to let us know what you like, what you don’t like and what we should cover in the future.

Along those lines, right now, before listening to the episode, open up a new tab on your browser and follow us on Twitter. We’re @RadioFreeHPC and as you know, our email address really should be ears@radiofreehpc.com, because we're all ears you see, but for now it is podcast@radio... We'd love to hear from you. Oh, and you can now find us on Spotify and Google Play in addition to iTunes! See below for all the links.

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New TOP500 List: Spot The Difference

Live from SC19

In this Breaking News edition of RadioFreeHPC, we look over the newly released TOP500 list in all its glory. We talk about the changes in this version of the list (100 new systems, but none in the top 24), how the major countries stack up against each other, and vendor system share.

We also discuss why this list is so, well, kind of not as exciting as we've got used to, and what we expect to see on future lists. There are some big things coming, but, like your birthday, they’re not here yet. In other conversation, we covered what we’ll be looking for and doing at the show. It’s a no frills episode, done quick and dirty, just how we like it.

Oh, and Henry and Dan find something to new to bet on!

"What Should I Do Next?", You Ask?

Right now, before listening to the episode, you need to open up a new tab on your browser and follow us on Twitter. We’re @RadioFreeHPC and this will ensure that you get the latest news and views from us.
Have a comment? Complaint? Question? Topic? Guest? We’re all ears. Our email address really should be ears@radiofreehpc.com but for now it is podcast@radio... We'd love to hear from you.

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SC19 Student Cluster Competition - Preview

Blood Sweat Glory, But No Tears

“This is a groundbreaking episode of RadioFreeHPC….groundbreaking, I tell you!

We have a very special guest, our first post-millennial commentator, Jessi Lanum who is a Student Cluster Competition veteran and is on the show to give us an insider peek at what it’s like to compete for cluster competition glory. Like a fresh ocean breeze, Jessi adds a lot to this episode with her enthusiasm, wit, and smart pithy comments.

Our topic today is the 2019 Student Cluster Competition which will take place on the show floor of SC’19.

For the few of you who are not already fans of these events, here’s the lowdown: 16 student teams representing universities from around the world have been working their brains out designing, building, and tuning clusters provided by their sponsors. They can use as much hardware as they want, the only limitation is that their systems can’t use more than 3,000 watts during the competition.

When the green flag drops on Monday afternoon, the students will start running a variety of HPC benchmarks and real-world HPC applications. The goal is to get the best/fastest results and thus prove that they have built, tuned, and optimized the best cluster platform. It’s a hugely exciting event. Dan goes over who all is competing this year and what apps they'll be running. We also get a rare inside scoop from Jessi on what it’s like to prep and compete in the cluster competition. It’s both fascinating and fun to hear what they go through during the grueling 46-hour event.

If you want even more information about the Student Cluster Competitions, visit Dan’s site at www.StudentClusterComp.com to find out everything you ever wanted to know – and more. Dan's been covering this competition around the world for about a decade and been taking copious notes!

Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever.

Henry discusses how retailer Orvis was pretty much completely owned by hackers. It’s a post-Halloween horror story, as hackers had their hooks into them from August to October, scary stuff. What worse is what they’ll have to do to recover, clean up their systems, and try to put the pieces together.

Catch of the Week:

Jessi tells us about how Palo Alto Networks is providing free network security training, and certification, for veterans – great job Palo Alto Networks!

Henry shares his theory, buttressed by evidence, that the next big race will take place in low earth orbit as vendors race to put up satellites to provide better and faster internet access.

Shahin discusses a blockchain based calendar that he feels will have a big impact in the future.

Dan brings up the "problematic" introduction of the Disney+ streaming application and we all talk the numbers, including how many subscribers they initially nabbed, the pricing, and the impact on competitors.

"What Should I Do Next?", You Ask?

Right now, before listening to the episode, you need to open up a new tab on your browser and follow us on Twitter. We’re @RadioFreeHPC and this will ensure that you get the latest news and views from us.

Have a comment? Complaint? Question? Topic? Guest? We’re all ears. Our email address really should be ears@radiofreehpc.com but for now it is podcast@radio... We'd love to hear from you.

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Truth, Trust, and Deepfakes

You never write, you never call, you never send flowers “just because.” But that’s ok, we welcome you back to another scintillating episode of Radio Free HPC anyway. Henry is traveling on yet another business trip, lodged in the Washington, DC area, and not even in his favorite hotel chain. But his reputation as a team player goes back to his days in the bayou, Dan says. And he performs another skillful yet awkward segue from Henry’s swamp origins to the swamp-like nature of the internet, which brings us to our special guest.

What’s true? What’s real? And how can we KNOW it?

We welcome Dave Maher, CTO of internet security company Intertrust, to share with us his deep knowledge of digital communication, identity management, data rights management, cryptography and digital certificates, blockchain, and much else. This whole subject is very much in his wheelhouse.

Dave gave us the run down on Intertrust and his other roles in the cybersecurity arena. Dan opens up the questioning with “Dave, do we really need security on the internet?” Dave, quick on the draw, responded “Well, we really haven’t had it for the last 20 years, so why start now?” which got the conversation off and running. Dave talked about the evolution of the internet and the rising need for security given that the internet has vastly changed since it began so long ago.

The main topic of the conversation is authenticity and truth. With the rise of deepfakes (images or videos that are convincingly falsified), how do we know that what we’re seeing and hearing is created by who we think and is what we think?

This leads to a deep conversation on ways we can verify content so that we know that it’s authentic. There are many ways of approaching it, but some implementation of blockchain seems to be a promising route.

Listen to the pod and get hipped to this very important topic. Shahin keeps saying it's the grand challenge of our time. He might be right.

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Preview of Supercomputing '19 - Denver

What's All Happening at SC19 in Denver?

Supercomputing '19 is coming to Denver this year and who better than Rich Brueckner to give us a sneak peak. Super excited to have Rich and his signature laugh on this show again.


In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team reviews the full list of ancillary events at SC19, and Henry gives us one more reason to stay offline. Oh, and a few predictions.

There's a lot that happens before the exhibit floor on Monday night. Our old pal Rich Brueckner from insideHPC joins us to give us the full rundown.

SC19 Ancillary Events:

HP-CAST. HPE's user group meeting starts things off on Friday, Nov. 14 - Saturday, Nov. 15. This two-day event will be the first HP-CAST meeting with Cray in the fold, so we're looking to some great insight as to how the two companies will merge their product line, partner network, and HPC ecosystems.

Intel HPC Developer Conference. In this two-day event on Sunday, Nov. 15 - Monday, Nov. 16, Intel offers a robust program to connect the HPC community with Intel developers, Intel engineers, and industry experts. "We’ll help you tackle your HPC challenges by offering a wide range of learning opportunities at SC19.

HPC Day with The Next Platform. Making its debut at SC19, HPC Day on Sunday, Nov. 17 is an in-depth day with thought leaders at the front of high performance innovation. In a series of on-stage interviews (no slides) with industry thought leaders, the Next Platform what’s relevant to the future of supercomputing.

Arm HPC User Group. Now in its fifth year, the all-day event takes place on Monday, Nov. 18 at the Curtis Hotel in Denver. "This is not a Marketing event -- we have a full day agenda of strategic partners and end-users from all regions of the world sharing their experiences, best practices, plans, ecosystem advances, and results on Arm-based platforms for HPC applications."

Dell EMC HPC Community. Kicking off at 8:00am on Monday, Nov. 18, the Dell HPC Community meeting will feature keynote presentations by HPC experts and a networking event to discuss best practices in the use of Dell EMC HPC Systems. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to receive updates on HPC strategy, product and solution plans from Dell executives and technical staff and technology partners.

DDN User Group. Starting at 1:00pm on Monday, Nov. 18, the DDN User Group brings together the best and brightest scientists, researchers and technologists to share and learn how leading global HPC organizations are executing cutting-edge initiatives that are transforming the world. The goal of the event is to gather the community during SC to discover how HPC organizations are assessing and leveraging technology to raise the bar on HPC innovations and best practices.

NVIDIA 2019 Special Address. You’re invited to attend the NVIDIA 2019 Special Address from founder and CEO, Jensen Huang. The event takes place 3:00pm - 5:00pm on Monday, November 18. Last year's address featured spectacular cosmology visualizations computed on NVIDIA GPUs. What will be revealed about accelerated computing on stage this year? Don't miss it. You must RSVP to attend.

Beowulf Bash at SC19. After the SC19 show floor closes on Monday night, the Beowulf Bash is the party not to miss. "This year, we thought it would be great to do Stranger Things theme party. There will be 80s-style entertainment, games, the best 80s tribute band. Food, beverages, entertainment, and Eggo Waffles provided.

Hyperion Research HPC Market Briefing Breakfast. Starting at 7:00am on Tuesday, Nov. 19, this informative briefing from Hyperion Research is always standing-room only. Get there early!

Nimbix Lounge Party. On Tuesday night, Nimbix will host its 7th Annual Lounge Party in Denver. "We invite you along with our co-host Intel to enjoy an evening of entertainment, cocktails and delicious food at White Pie."

Lunch and Learn - Getting a Handle on HPC Cloud Costs. Starting at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 20, this lunch event will share the many advantages of using a cloud spend management platform and how to avoid expensive mistakes when migrating HPC workloads to the cloud. This event is recommended for anyone considering the use of cloud for HPC workloads and will be particularly useful for attendees running Slurm, Univa Grid Engine, or open-source Grid Engine. The session will focus on real-world deployment examples and provide technical demonstrations that show how hybrid clouds can be deployed efficiently and cost-effectively across multiple cloud providers.

Check out the insideHPC Events Calendar and send an email to news@insideHPC.com if your organization sponsoring a function at SC19 and you'd like it listed.

Why No One Should Ever Be Online.  Ever.

Henry’s tells us even internet "domain name registrars" are not immune, describing breaches at  NetworkSolutions.com, Register.com and Web.com which eventually led them to ask customers to reset their passwords. They apparently discovered the hack in August 2019 in which customer account information was accessed. [Yes, we're still massaging the title of this segment but looks like the above is gelling, albeit w/o a shorter tweet-friendly version.]

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7 Years, 251 Episodes, 17 Listeners

RadioFreeHPC Celebrates a Number in its Prime

Welcome to a historic milestone:  Our 251^st Radio Free HPC episode! We’re celebrating 251 rather than 250 for a couple of reasons. First, everyone celebrates round numbers and that’s boring. And 251 is round enough for those who crave them. Second, 251 is a prime number and we all love us some prime numbers, right?

This is not quite a "highlights" show, but a look back at how RadioFreeHPC came about, who came up with the name RadioFreeHPC, how the show has evolved, a bit of "remember when", a few notable episodes, and the meteoric rise of its listenership!

We discuss the early days, with each of us sharing some of our favorite moments. As the episode continues, we talk about how particular features have become part of the show over time, like “Catch of the Week”, “Henry Newman’s Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever”, and the semi-occasional “Why AI Is Our Doom” from Dan.

Here are a couple of choice pictures both of which link to the same holiday special that includes a video where Dan and Henry discuss the ideal gift for Henry!

Did You Say Prizes?

We also discuss fantastic prizes for anyone who has listened to all 251 of our episodes. Reach out to us on Twitter (@Radiofreehpc) or via email to let us know if you qualify and what prize you’d like. Oh, and you have to listen to this episode to learn what the prizes are.

Thank you our listeners, we could do it without you – we have, we must have – but it's totally no fun if we actually know about it.

Here's to the next so many episodes. We need another number in its prime to celebrate, so feel free to propose a good one.

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