Diverging Chip Architectures in the Wake of Spectre and Meltdown

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at the tradeoff between chip performance and security. In the aftermath of the recently disclosed Spectre and Meltdown exploits, Cryptograpy guru Paul Kocher from Rambus is calling for a divergence in processor architectures:

The direction that we need to go as an industry though is ...We need to stop trying to build one processor architecture that is great for playing video games and doing wire transfers. We need to build architectures where there are cores and software stacks designed for security that can be slower, that can be simpler, and we need separate ones that are optimized for performance."

In this video, Paul Kocher presents: Spectre - Exploiting Speculative Execution. Kocher is the lead author of the paper on the Spectre processor vulnerability.

After that, we do our Catch of the Week.

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A New CEO at HPE

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at HPE's new CEO, Antonio Neri, a longtime HPE executive who previously served as President of the company. As the number 1 server vendor in the HPC space, this change will be one to watch as we transition to the exascale era in the next five years or so.

This transistion comes at an interesting time for HPE, as one of their main competitors, Dell Technologies, is reportedly looking at an IPO or reverse acquisition by VMware.

Closer to home in the HPC space:

• HPE just landed a huge deal at DoD Modernization for four supercomputers totaling 14 Petaflops of performance
• HP-CAST host Frank Baetke has left the company and will continue on as Chair of EOFS.

After that, we do our Catch of the Week.
 
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When NVIDIA Bans Consumer GPUs in the Datacenter

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at NVIDIA's new EULA GeForce Software user license, which prohibits the use of consumer GPUs in the datacenter. We are not looking to beat up on anyone, but our focus is on what limitations this might mean for the industry:

No Datacenter Deployment. The SOFTWARE is not licensed for datacenter deployment, except that blockchain processing in a datacenter is permitted.

When we purchase hardware, aren't we free to use it any way we please? And why do BitCoin miners get a pass during a worldwide GPU shortage?

Plus, what do we mean by the word "datacenter?" anyway? Shahin predicts the imminent proliferation of 5G networking capabilities will move computing closer to the edge, thereby changing what we mean by the term "datacenter."

After that, we do our Catch of the Week.

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Looking at the Cryptocurrency Crash

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at the recent cryptocurrency crash and why prices for these coins is so volatile.

After that, we do our Catch of the Week.

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Europe Invests in Exascale

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at European Commission's recent move to fund exascale development with 1 Billion Euros.

While Europe already had a number of exascale initiatives under way, this is a major step forward in that it puts up the money. Under a new legal and funding structure, the Commission’s contribution will be $486 million, or roughly half of the projected EUR 1 Billion total. Before the new structure was put in place, the Commission was effectively limited to contributing only 20 percent of HPC initiatives undertaken with member states.

After that, we do our Catch of the Week.

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Spectre and Meltdown Exploits threaten HPC Performance

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at the performance ramifications of the Spectre and Meltdown exploits that affect processors from Intel, AMD, and many others. While patches are on the way, the performance hit from these patches could be as high as twenty or thirty percent in some cases.

For information and links to useful resources, visit the security research findings page on Intel.com.

Downlaod the White Paper: How the Meltdown and Spectre bugs work and what you can do to prevent a performance plummet.

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A List of Things Not Invited Back in 2018

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team reviews their list of things Not Invited Back in 2018. Along the way, they share some of their New Year Resolutions.

Not Invited Back for 2018:

• Henry want to see an end to Swatting.
• Dan wants to see an end to IEEE Floating-Point Arithmetic
• Rich is not inviting PEZY back since their CEO got arrested for padding expense reports and bilking the Japanese government.

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