RadioFreeHPC

Edge Computing Book Makes Sense of It All After our typical inane opening, which includes an update on Henry’s Las Cruces bunker with  21” rammed earth walls, we get quickly down to business and begin our interview with very special guest, Dr. Cody Bumgardner, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kentucky. Our topic? Edge computing, what it is, what is isn’t, and why it’s important. Cody has just authored a book “Making Sense of Edge Computing.” Dan starts us off with a question about the definition of edge computing, which as it turns out, covers a lot of ground. Henry comes in with a question about how 5G might impact edge computing and Shahin follows up by asking if 5G really has much to do with edge computing at all. There is some overlap, but 5G is a transmission mechanism rather than a computing mechanism, meaning that it’s the 5G device and what it is tasked to do that can make it either an edge device or not an edge device. As the show goes on, we talk about the edge capacity in place and what still needs to be built, along with current and potential use cases. A good time is had by all.Reasons Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever. Henry shocks us yet again with news that people are being scammed by work-at-home deals that are actually ‘money mule’ schemes to help criminals launder their ill-gotten gains. Dan seems a little too curious about the mechanics and potential pay-offs of these deals. Catch of the Week Jessi: Jessi is pointing out that she has now moved for the third time in one academic semester and that she has more books than anything else. Ouch. Henry:  Henry is off yelling at his contractors when his turn comes up, so no catch from him this week. Shahin:  Article about how to program Aurora, highly recommended by Shahin. Dan:   Discusses how the ISC2020 Student Cluster Competition will be virtual this year. He’ll be covering it as usual, but with a LOT of Zoom. Every team is going to be using the same cluster, but sharing it. Stay tuned for more news.Join us! * Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

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NOTE:  The publication of this episode was delayed due to the untimely passing of our partner and pal Rich Brueckner. So what we’re announcing as “breaking news” isn’t so fresh today, but our takes on what NVIDIA’s new A100 processor brings to the table are still valid.  Breaking News! This special edition of RadioFreeHPC… Read More »A is for Ampere, Nvidia A100's Public Debut

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by Dan Olds This is a tough blog to write for this RadioFreeHPC episode. This is the episode where we say a final goodbye to our co-founder and comrade in arms Rich Brueckner. Rich passed away suddenly last week leaving us shocked and shaken. The whole genesis of RFHPC came out of Rich and I… Read More »Tribute to Rich Brueckner, 1962-2020

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We start off with an update from our crew. Jessie is at Purdue putting her belongings into storage in order to clear out her current abode. Shahin is doing fine, all quarantined up down in Silicon Valley. Henry has big news:  he’s completed his north-south journey and is now staying in a hotel very close… Read More »Debate This: Server Sales Up 30% in Q1, Says Analyst Firm

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The show starts with Dan, Jessi and Shahin in attendance. Henry is traveling from his old home base in Minnesota to his new command bunker in lovely Las Cruces, NM. Last we heard he was in Kansas City and making good time. We’re not sure how long we’re going to have to do without him… Read More »ColdQuanta Serves Up Some Bose-Einstein Condensate

A typical show opening, but we’re missing Henry – he was away packing for his big move from his long-time home base in Minnesota to his new bunker in Las Cruces. He’s packing up all of his memorabilia, like his first punch card sets, his core memory collection and his home terminal, lovingly wrapping them up for the long trip south. News AlertNEWS ALERT:  we interrupt this show blog for a special announcement. We’re having a contest! This is the digital version of the "18th caller" contest. The 18th emailer to RFHPC, starting now, will receive what Dan might describe as a fantastic prize from us at Radio Free HPC. Send in your email entries now, and listen to the show for details. This might take a couple of weeks, it might take a couple of years, but we're nothing if not good with small numbers and large units. And that 18th lucky emailer deserves a prize. A Cool New Book ProjectWe have a special guest today, David Barkai, a 50-year veteran of HPC. David has worked in a wide variety of positions at NASA, Intel, Cray, SGI and others. His project now is writing a book to chronicle the last 50 years in HPC told from the perspective of those who were there. The main emphasis in the book is examining the good that HPC has done in the world, which is quite the story. He’s looking at the applications that have changed the world, from weather forecasting to safer and quieter cars and so on, and the system architectures that have made them possible in a decade-by-decade tour of HPC development. 1970s:  Vector Processors1980s:  Multiprocessors1990s:  Massive Parallelism2000s:  Clusters and Accelerators2010s and beyond:  HPC and AI/CloudAs David says in our interview, the top HPC systems have advanced 10-15 times faster than Moore’s Law, which is astounding. In the book he goes into detail about how the industry drove performance at such a dizzying pace. He’s still writing away and is interested in hearing about your HPC journey to help fill out the book. You can reach him here. Reasons Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever.Henry is practicing what he preaches and is not online right now as he waits to the internet company to get him connected again. Catch of the Week:Jessi:  Google’s head of Quantum computing hardware resigns. John Martinis resigned after being assigned to an advisory role in the company. Shahin:  Discusses a paper on Coarse Grain Reconfigurable Architecture (CGRA) as a way of having performance and programmability closer to the metal. Its survey of what's been going on in this area with FPGAs is great and may also point to what we can expect in future supercomputers. Dan:  Subs for Henry with a horrible impression for a first catch. But his real catch is a plug for the Radio Free HPC Studio Products production of “Charles Babbage, his life and times.”  It’s an impressive production with chills, thrills and plenty of action. Don’t put it off, listen now. All those reviews are great for a reason! Join us!* Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us