This is a continuation of our look at future trends in high performance computing. In part 1 we covered the first five of the top ten trends. In this installment we’ll wrap up with the remaining five.
Future Trends in HPC, part 2
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Category Archives: Biotechnology
Future trends in HPC, part 1
As we near the end of 2011, we take a moment to reflect on the past year. It’s been a busy year for IT across virtually all verticals, from mobile and search to enterprise servers and cloud computing. When we attended HPC360 a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure to attend a keynote presentation by Addison Snell, CEO of Intersect Research in which he discussed the most important trends in high performance computing (HPC).
HPC is an exciting and growing industry that ICC has been moving into the past couple years. The traditional HPC space revolved around high-end research facilities particularly in science and engineering. However, with each year technological innovations and tailored systems such as our Supermicro GPU Simcluster have brought the realm of HPC closer to reality for many small/medium-sized business and organizations.
In this 2-part series we will look at the top 10 future trends in HPC from Intersect360′s research, coupled with our own analysis and thoughts. No better way for us computer nerds to close the year right? Let’s get started.
Top 10 HPC Trends for 2012 and Beyond
HPC and the life sciences
This week, a team from our company visited a large laboratory located in the Chicago area. IT representatives there told us how a major focus for them has been migrating their computing resources from a model of individual workgroups using separate clusters to a shared private cloud that all research teams in the facility can access for running their jobs. This shift to private clouds for getting the most out of dedicated clusters is a hot topic of conversation in the HPC world.
HPC in the Cloud recently published an article responding to a case study written by Platform Computing about the implementation of a private cloud at the Harvard Medical School. Both are worth a read if you are interested in the challenges encountered by small- and medium-sized life sciences organizations when they try to adopt HPC clusters.
HPC holds much promise for organizations such as the Harvard Medical School. With middleware such as Platform Computing (we are biased, I must admit, since this is what HPC clusters by ICC deploy as well) it is getting easier to operate an HPC cluster with hosts running different operating systems and applications. It used to be that this multiplicity of software on the same cluster would cause extensive compatibility and usability problems, but not so much anymore. End-users in the life sciences (such as medical researchers) are benefiting from computing applications that are productive and easy to use.
So Harvard Medical School, as the HPC in the Cloud article describes, has migrated from an inefficient computing model of unshared individual computers scattered across various laboratories to a centralized private cloud that can be accessed by any of those users and managed as one unit. Simplifying maintenance while maximizing accessibility to HPC resources by medical school staff is most likely going to save money and increase the pace of innovation in the long run.
While this is a hopeful case study that sheds light on how other organizations can pool their computing resources to great effect, challenges remain for spreading this model to other small- and medium-size laboratories and businesses. For one, private medical companies are heavily regulated by the government and their IT infrastructure has to incorporate many time-consuming applications to store detailed records.
HPC is becoming more affordable and easier to use, but software has to continue evolving to accommodate the particular context of each industry. Only then will the life sciences (not to mention other markets) have a truly turn-key HPC solution that can benefit labs and private companies of every size.
Context aware computing
Never drunk dial again. That is the promise from Intel CTO, Justin Rattner, as he discussed context aware computing and the next generation of personal devices, at the annual Intel Develop Forum in San Francisco.
Combining GPS technology with data from microphones, cameras, heart monitors and brain scans, new apps could track and document your every move. Don’t worry about taking a picture of that landmark; your phone already did because it knows you never remember to. It also updated your Facebook profile and checked you in on Foursquare.
If you can get past the privacy concerns, this technology may have potential.
TV that recommends what to watch, based on who is holding the remote-because it can tell who you are by the way you hold it.
Apps that suggest where to eat in your area because the phone knows you just ran 5 miles and need those 40g of protein to continue your krebs cycle and it knows nobody wants to be around you when your blood sugar drops.
Context aware devices may have their day, and in certain situations certainly have their place, but with the serious implications to privacy and the flawed security structure of the internet, the zeitgeist will need to change significantly for this technology to be accepted.
Then again, I thought American Idol was rubbish, so what do I know?
Cashews, Datacenters and Imperial Pints
When I was a kid, there was a t.v. show called Beyond 2000. It showcased cutting edge technology that was supposed to change the way we worked and lived. I guess, at the time, the siren song of the millennium still held its allure. Then we got American Idol and it all went downhill.
I remember one episode, in Beyond 2000, where they talked about containers made from processed rice. The containers could be molded into any shape, used and then consumed.
And by consumed, I mean eaten.
Genius!
Here was the solution to all of our landfill, waste disposal issues. Make stuff out of food then eat it. Those toy packages with the enraging twist ties and artery severing edges, just chew through them. On a shopping spree and need a little pick me up? Consolidate your loot and have a little snack.
Fast forward twenty years and everything old is new again. Discovery News reports NEC Corporation announced the development of a first-of-its kind biomass-based plastic produced from non-edible plant resources, such as cashew shells. The product is durable enough to use in electronic equipment and could, by 2013, be in production.
Plants have natural cooling properties and if these plastics retain some of that quality, they could add an inherent cooling mechanism, to alleviate the high energy costs of computer components.
It could also lead sysadmins to wonder why, to paraphrase the sage Kramer, ‘these rack-servers are making me thirsty.’
The Six Million Dollar Human (adjusted for inflation)
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology…Better, stronger, faster.”
-from The Six Million Dollar Man
Memresistors and human engineering. Artificial intelligence and supercomputers. Biosynthetic corneal implants and facebook updates. What do these things have in common? The reliance on microprocessors? Hardly.
This technology might soon be packaged into a portable, rugged, ergonomically correct platform. The human skin.
From an article on DiscoveryNews, Hartmut Esslinger, founder and co-CEO of Frog Design, discusses the concept of Dattoos.
The concept of the Dattoo arose in response to current trends towards increasing connectivity and technology as self-expression. To realize a state of constant, seamless connectivity and computability required the convergence of technology and self. The body would need to literally become the interface. Computers and communication devices require physical space, surfaces, and energy. The idea of DNA tattoos (Dattoos) is to use the body itself as hardware and interaction platform, through the use of minimally-invasive, recyclable materials.
Technology is becoming ever more mobile. Moving from the centralized user interface, where platforms are static and require the presence of the individual at a specific location, to the roaming and portable medium we enjoy today. Allowing us to interact with the world, as we traverse it. Incorporating what it has to offer us, as we wish.
Tethering ourselves to devices. Requiring external components to conduct our business imposes layers of abstraction, no matter how small. They remove us, ever so slightly, from experiencing the world as a pure construct.
Storing personal information in a secure medium, easily accessible and capable of interacting with any platform, has huge appeal. The trick is implementing this as yet unproven technology.
Not to mention getting past the sheer macabre implications of getting “hacked”.