This issue of Print 'n Fly previews the upcoming SC13 conference in Denver, Colorado, which marks the 25th anniversary of the SC series. It includes an interview with Bill Gropp, the SC13 Conference Chair, who discusses some of the new elements at this year's conference including the HPC Impact Showcase and Emerging Technologies program. In addition, the issue provides overviews of several technical sessions and social events taking place during SC13.

1. Print ‘n Fly
Exclusive Interview
The Fast Data
Imperative
Michael Kagan,
CTO at Mellanox
Brian Sparks and
Scot Schultz on
The Secrets
of Technical
Marketing
Sci-Fi Original:
The Observer
Effect
By Rich Brueckner
Interview with Bill Gropp
25
TH
ANNIVERSARY
Plus
The Complete History
of Keynotes
Restaurants, Entertainment, and More

2. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Contents
3 The Fast Data Imperative
5
Interview: Bill Gropp on the 25th Anniversary of SC
7
Technical Marketing in the Age of HPC
9
Local’s Guide to Restaurants in Denver
1 0
Move Over, HPCers: Another Wave of Immigrants
is Hitting Your Shores
11 SC 25th Anniversary – The Complete History of Keynotes
12 Local’s Guide to Bars and Entertainment in Denver
13 Brian Sparks and Scot Schultz on the Secrets of
Technical Marketing
1 6
An Update to the Exascale Progress Meter
19 SC13 Comes to Denver, Colorado
21 Sci-Fi Original: The Observer Effect
Mellanox Welcomes You to Denver and SC13
Come See Us at Booth #2722
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
www.mellanox.com/sc13
2

3. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Fast Data Imperative
An Interview with Mellanox CTO, Michael Kagan
insideHPC: With the 25th anniversary of the SC conference this year,
could you please share your perspective on how far we’ve come in system
interconnects over the past quartercentury?
Michael Kagan: As technology
has evolved, the interconnect has
played a paramount role to bringing
Michael Kagan
new concepts and enabling new levels of system performance, efficiency and scalability. We
have witnessed the migration of HPC interconnect technology intoWeb 2.0, cloud, and data intelligence systems
to handle the explosive growth of data. We are in the era
where the interconnect is critical for so many applications.
For instance, real-time data analytics of unstructured data
on a global scale was only a concept 25 years ago, however
today, real-time access to data is literally a world economic dependency. When you think about it in these terms, the
interconnect is just as important to our global economy as
water is to the fish in the sea.
insideHPC: In terms of today, how well-entrenched is the latest generation of FDR InfiniBand out there in the TOP500
supercomputers?
Michael Kagan: Mellanox FDR InfiniBand systems grew
over 3X from June’12 to June’13. We are pleased with the
adoption of our technology and believe it will continue to
be the performance leader in the TOP500. As Petascale capable computing is becoming more common-place in the
TOP500, InfiniBand is also the leading interconnect with
16 out of the 33 systems in the June 2013 list, and what’s
more, FDR InfiniBand connects the four fastest InfiniBand
systems on the list. From our perspective, we believe the
TOP500 is a good metric to show that the HPC community has a high regard for industry-standard, high performance interconnect solutions that are well supported by
an ecosystem of open-source.
insideHPC: What comes after FDR? Will your ConnectX
Ethernet likely take a leap at that point as well?
Michael Kagan: The next generation 100Gb/s technology comes from the architectural building blocks of
ConnectX-3 VPI and Connect-IB FDR technology, and is
planned to be released in the 2014-2015 time frame. Both,
our InfiniBand and Ethernet products, deliver the best deliver the best price/performance in the marketand we see
increased adoption of both. In fact, Mellanox sold more
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
than one million end-points last year; around 10% of the
server market.
insideHPC: The SC13 conference is loaded with sessions
on Exascale. Will InfiniBand have a role to play as we get to
10^18th flops sometime in the next 7–10 years?
Michael Kagan: We believe we are point-focused on
Exascale and are on target to address the challenges it presents. This includes advanced data protection mechanisms,
support across the various network topologies, instruction
set architectures and acceleration technologies, improving
increased bandwidth and providing the lowest possible
latency, but particular attention on improving performance at scale will be a key issue. We participate in several of the Exascale programs and plan to continue and invest in delivering faster and faster interconnect solutions
to pave the way for Exascale.
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
What is your fondest memory of
the SC conferences?
My fondest memory of SC? My first SC04 in 2004 in Pittsburgh was the most impressive event that I attended as
a young student at that time. The gigantic machinery that
was brought just to showcase supercomputing demonstrated how important and big the HPC field really was.
For me, this experience was a game, or better, careerchanger. I decided to focus my research on HPC because
this is a field where one can have real impact. Since then,
I attended every SC!
– Torsten Hoefler, ETH Zürich
insideHPC: Mellanox has made some Photonics acquisitions
recently. Is this the future and are we reaching the limits of
silicon?
Michael Kagan: Yes, Mellanox has made two significant
acquisitions in the area of silicon photonics and VCSEL
based technologies. We acquired a company called Kotura, which brings a world-class team of silicon photonics
expertise. We also recently acquired IPtronics, a leading
fabless supplier of low-power, high-speed analog semiconductors for parallel optical interconnect solutions. We
believe these investments are strategic to enable 100Gbs
data rates and beyond.
3

4. insideHPC: What happens to Mellanox if x86 vendors start
building InfiniBand interfaces directly onto their processors?
Michael Kagan: It is all about bringing the best solution to
the market. To date, Mellanox has delivered 7 generations
of advanced interconnect solutions and is a generation or
more ahead of the competition. We believe that we will
maintain and even extend the gap into the future. Only
Mellanox provides a complete end-to-end solution for 40
and 56Gb/s, and it is not an easy task. Furthermore, once
you add the software complexity into the mix, you will see
that it is not easy for other companies to bring the solutions that Mellanox has today.
insideHPC: As CTO, what is your toughest challenge in
pushing the limits of communications technology? (Resiliency, component cost, bandwidth, power consumption?)
Michael Kagan: The toughest challenges are usually
only uncovered when you actually try pushing the limits
of technology, which coincidentally is a driving force at
Mellanox. By far, what is the most challenging is to truly
understand the problem for which you are trying to provide a solution. There are many adjacent issues that need
to be considered; such as security in the cloud, scalability
to hundreds of thousands of end-points and power efficiency to name a few.
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
What is your fondest memory of
the SC conferences?
My fondest memory of SC? I first attended SC in 1989, to
present a technical paper. Back then we used 35mm slides
(instead of Powerpoint), and since my paper was about debugger visualization techniques the illustrations were critical. About halfway through, the projector lamp burned out.
There I was, using my hands to “draw” figures in the air in
order to explain what the audience should have been seeing on the screen. I was young enough to be embarrassed,
until I realized that the audience actually became more receptive because they sympathized. That single presentation led to a number of collaborations and friendships. I’ve
never missed an SC since.
– Cherri Pancake, Oregon State University
4

5. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Interview: Bill Gropp on the 25th Anniversary of SC
SC13 marks the 25th anniversary
of the supercomputing conference
series. To get a perspective on the
history of the show, we caught up
with Bill Gropp, the SC13 Conference Chair.
insideHPC: When you took over as
Bill Gropp
conference chair this year, what were
the top things you set out to accomplish? How did it go?
Bill Gropp: SC is a unique — and uniquely valuable —
event in our community, with a long history of making
a difference. When I accepted the challenge of chairing
the conference, I set the bar high: I wanted to make SC
even better than it is already. Some of my most important
goals were:
• ncrease the recognition of the widespread contribuI
tion of HPC to all aspects of society
• ake SC the most desirable place to present and pubM
lish the best technical work in HPC.
• ake SC an even more effective place for everyone
M
involved in HPC to collaborate and make new connections.
So far, I think that it is going well, but you and your readers
will have to tell me how well my committee and I have succeeded in making SC even better. And I believe that we’ve
made the planning process better; for example, we’ve reduced the number of planning meetings and we’re using
collaboration tools to better organize and prepare.
Looking back over the past 25 years,
it is clear that SC has been the launching point for many of the technical
innovations that have reshaped HPC.
“
“
insideHPC: What new things can attendees expect to see this
year at SC13?
Bill Gropp: The model that has evolved for the conference
is that we have a core of excellent program elements —
tutorials, technical papers, the exhibition, and so on — and
then we innovate around that core. Each year the committee tries a few new things and, while some don’t work out,
those that do work out may ultimately be added to the
core of the conference. This helps us ensure that each SC is
familiar, but stays fresh and exciting.
This year we’ve added some truly interesting aspects to
the program:
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
• here are more ways to see HPC in action with
T
Emerging technologies and the HPC Impact Showcase, both on the exhibit floor. Emerging technologies
is a peer-reviewed addition to the technical program
that showcases new developments, permitting the
live demonstration of new technologies and ideas.
The HPC Impact Showcase highlights the use of HPC,
from consumer goods to industrial applications. It
provides a venue for the users of HPC to interact
with the developers and providers of HPC technology, and will include many large corporations using
HPC that I think attendees will find very interesting.
CONFERENCE DATES
November 17–22, 2013
EXHIBITION DATES
November 18–21, 2013
• ooking back over the past 25 years, it is clear that SC
L
has been the launching point for many of the technical innovations that have reshaped HPC. To recognize this history of impact we have started “Test of
Time” award, which will be presented for the first
time this year. This new award will be presented
each year to a paper presented at SC that has had the
greatest sustained impact on our field.
H
• PC Interconnections is our new name for the SC
Communities program, to emphasize the focus on
providing an “on ramp” into the excitement of our
field. This year we are integrating it even more tightly with the technical program. I encourage everyone
to have a look at the offerings of the HPC Educator
and Broader Engagement programs; the sessions beginning Tuesday are open to all Technical Program
attendees.
I
• n celebration of the 25th anniversary of SC we have
special exhibits, including some at participating exhibitors, and a panel discussing the past and future
of our field.
• his year we will have four major awards presentT
ed at SC — in addition to the Cray, Kennedy, and
Fernbach awards, Prof. Kathy Yelick will receive the
ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award. The Athena award
is presented annually to an outstanding female researcher who has made fundamental contributions to
computer science. This is the first year a researcher
from our community has been selected for an Athena,
but I hope this is the start of a regular feature in our
conference program.
5

6. Bill Gropp: There are so many, it’s hard to pick just one.
Here are few that come to mind:
• PI really started at an ad hoc meeting at SC in MinM
neapolis in 1992. It was at this meeting that I made
the commitment to begin an implementation of MPI
as the MPI Forum, as the group became known. That
implementation became MPICH. This is also an example of the positive impacts of major meetings like
SC — it provides an effective venue for groups to
gather and accomplish something that none of them
can do on their own.
• s a member of a panel on multicore organized by
A
Thomas Sterling and including Ken Kennedy; the
room was packed and the discussion lively. This was
the last time I saw Ken; he was both a great researcher and a true gentleman. I’m glad that his memory
is honored with the ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy
award.
C
• layton Christiansen’s keynote in 2010. The material
was fascinating and his personal story was compelling.
• he SC Committee family. Few of the attendees see
T
the dedication of the many volunteers that makes
SC possible. Becoming part of this group, and being
honored with the responsibility of SC13, is something
I will always treasure.
• ’ve had fun wandering the exhibit floor looking for
I
new parallel computer vendors and asking about
their MPI implementation. The fun was how long it
took until they admitted it was MPICH.
insideHPC: How do you think the conference has changed
over the years?
Bill Gropp: One obvious change is the size — SC is much
larger than it was when I first attended, in 1992. The technical program has become very strong. The focus of the
technical program has also changed, with less focus on
compilation and languages and more on massive parallelism. Another change is in the composition of the exhibit
floor, especially from the research exhibits, which have
become more active and dynamic, and I believe have created an atmosphere that encourages more collaboration,
exploration, and friendly competition.
insideHPC: How important is the SC conference to the global
HPC community?
Bill Gropp: SC is essential. An important ingredient in
scientific progress is the efficient exchange of ideas, and
the best way to get that free thinking, efficient exchange
is to immerse the best researchers, users, developers, and
teachers in a stimulating sea of ideas — whether it is presentation of new results in papers or posters or in the demPrint ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
“
An important ingredient in scientific
progress is the efficient exchange of
ideas, and the best way to get that
freethinking, efficient exchange is to
immerse the best researchers, users,
developers, and teachers in a stimulating sea of ideas and give them the
opportunity to interact.
“
insideHPC: What is your fondest memory of the SC
conferences?
onstration of new ideas on the exhibit floor — and give
them the opportunity to interact. Big meetings such as SC
are one of the few places that you can bring all of these
elements together.
insideHPC: Which conference / year was your favorite - and
why?
Bill Gropp: You like to ask the hard questions! The easy
answer is 2013 in Denver — it’s been great to be the general chair and to see everything come together. Denver is
a great place to hold a meeting like SC. But if we exclude
the current year, I’ll pick 2009 in Portland. As chair of the
technical program, I was deeply connected with the process of making the conference a success, and my technical
program committee was fabulous. I also have a soft spot
for Portland — I had family there and they have one of the
world’s best bookstores — Powell’s.
insideHPC: What effect do you think the Government Shutdown will have on attendance at SC13?
Bill Gropp: That will depend on the next few weeks.
We’ve already issued a statement on the impact of the
shutdown on SC13, and right now I can say that we have
not seen any significant impact. Registration is still very
strong both for the technical program and for the exhibit
floor. We’re also fortunate that SC starts in mid November; there is plenty of time for the chaos created by the
shutdown to settle. We also extended early registration for
those affected by the shutdown, and we’re already seeing
registrations from people who could not register during
the shutdown.
insideHPC: At this point, has anyone already cancelled talks
or exhibits as a result of the government shutdown?
Bill Gropp: Not that I’m aware of. For those that are directly affected, we are waiving the cancellation fees for
now so that no one will feel forced to cancel, and we also
extended the early registration pricing. Indications are
that those directly affected were patient and waited to
see how and when the shutdown ended; we’ve already
received thanks from some of those affected for the steps
that we took to accommodate them.
6

7. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Technical Marketing in the Age of HPC
An interview with Mike Bernhardt from The Exascale Report
SC13 will have over 360 exhibits this
year. In such a vibrant and growing
technology space, how does your
company stand out with marketing
programs that deliver results? To
get a perspective on this, we caught
up with a seasoned HPC marketing
veteran, Mike Bernhardt. Many of
you know Mike’s name as the Publisher of The Exascale Report, but
Mike Bernhardt
he is also a highly regarded strategic marketing and communications consultant and sits at
the helm of Team Libra Communications.You might also
remember Mike as the SC09 Communications Chair, a
year where I think the conference really knocked it out of
the park.
insideHPC: What would you tell these marketing guys out
there who are fighting for internal resources?
Mike Bernhardt: Executives who may be one or two steps
removed from marketing have to realize that within the
HPC community, there is a certain level of awareness and
brand recognition activity that’s expected from a vendor
who wants to be taken seriously in this space. It’s a fast
paced market in many ways. People are constantly working on proposals, responding to RFPs, and working on a
wide range of procurement deals. It’s actually very easy
for an organization in acquisition mode, within the HPC
community or at the fringe, to overlook one of the key
HPC solution providers. And even if they’re reminded of
a good vendor candidate along the way, it may be too late
for an active RFP.
So staying in front of those folks on a continual basis is
absolutely critical within the HPC segment. I think that
some organizations tend to think of marketing as something that is nice to have, and they overlook how critically
important it is. They need to have their messaging, positioning, and competitive posturing out in front of people
all the time through multiple channels.
So let’s consider a customer organization out there that
has a procurement team, and they’re evaluating alternatives for a new computing or storage system. If they’re
considering the options, they would probably start with
the vendors that they are most familiar with. But if these
decision-makers are constantly seeing the messaging from
one of the newer, more aggressive players, they are often
inclined to take a look at that. And here is the key--they
tend to do that process through peer-to-peer communication. If their influence partners are not aware of the vendor
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
or solution provider, the credibility factor of that vendor
or product immediately slips.
In the HPC Segment, decision makers don’t necessarily
start by clicking an ad or reading a story, and then signing
up for more information. But such impressions can inspire
them to talk to their peers and colleagues to determine if
that product is a viable solution for them. So from what I’ve
seen over my 26 years in this community, this is very different from the way that a potential customer might respond
to an ad in the mobile or enterprise computing spaces.
insideHPC: So you’re saying there’s a different pathway to
sales here in HPC?
Mike Bernhardt: What I’m saying is that, as a vendor, unless I’ve made a strong impression upon these folks to get
to their top-of-mind, they won’t be seeking that counsel
with their peers.
To make matters even more complicated, when you look
at a market like HPC that has some long-standing vendors,
those companies tend to become known for one thing.
And that makes it especially tough for them when they
add new capabilities and technology solutions outside of
that known space. Their marketing teams have to really
step up to overcome that notion that your company just
does an updated version of what they did 20 years ago.
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
Which conference or year was
your favorite, and why?
1992. Vikings and Cheerleaders.
– Mike Bernhardt
So even with the cornerstone organizations in HPC, they
have to tell us what they’re about today. And they can’t
depend on one editorial piece, trade show, white paper, or
press release to get the job done. If they don’t hit multiple
channels, it’s just way too easy for decision-makers to miss
the message.
So beware the checkmark that says, “That’s a done deal.
We communicated that.”
insideHPC: How has marketing in HPC changed over the
years you’ve been serving the community?
Mike Bernhardt: When I first entered the HPC space doing marketing programs some 26 years ago, technical marketing was just starting to come into its own. At that time,
I don’t think marketing people were all that welcome in a
technical community that just wanted the facts.
7

8. And so I think you had to pay great attention to balancing your marketing programs, even though you wanted to
beat your chest and brag. You had to learn to temper that
hyperbole quite a bit and as a result, the tone got increasingly conservative in the early 1990s.
That just speaks to the tremendous power and influence
you can have if you deliver the message to the customer
in the right way. But let me tie back to why solid, credible
marketing is important to the labs. And this is true on an
international level.
And then things started to loosen up a bit after that in the
mid-90’s and we saw more flashy marketing approaches
(think animatronic robots in the SC95 Cray booth for example) and people started adding more fun things into
their marketing programs.
The future for any of the research labs depends on their
ability to procure new funding. And that is obviously
based on both the real and the perceived success of the
programs they launch. When they request millions of dollars for a program that is based on technology from a particular company, they need to know that the companies
and the products they intend to work with have the right
appeal and the support of their community. So the way
a vendor’s marketing programs are perceived, with items
such as success stories, case studies, and customer-driven
white papers really helps the labs in making their own
case when they go out to look for their funding.
But in the early 2000s, I think that it was about the time
when Grid was getting very popular and everything just
got blown out of proportion. There was even a one-time
Grid trade show in Philadelphia that was considered
somewhat of a disaster that really drove the point home.
You just couldn’t separate the facts from hype, and that
left the technical computing community with a very bad
taste in their mouths. When that happens, they tend to be
less open to receiving almost any message from marketing. They then go tighter into the huddle with their peer
groups to talk through what’s going on with technology,
while discounting almost everything that comes from a
marketing organization.
So it goes in cycles. These days, I think we’re seeing things
loosening up to the point where I think we can start having fun with marketing again. And there are a couple of
things affecting that. The old guard of supercomputing is
thinning out, and there’s a new generation of HPC professionals coming in. And these younger people (age, experience, skills) are often more open to a more fun and
lighthearted approach to things, as long as it’s all based on
reality, facts, and real-world comparisons.
With that in mind, I think a company that learns to present
the facts in a fun and entertaining way will see their mindshare increase out there. And I think we are going to see
a change in the way companies are doing their marketing
as a result. It’ a positive change, and I think its going to be
good for the HPC community.
Mike Bernhardt has held staff positions with a number of leading edge companies including Prime Computer, DEC, Multiflow
Computer and Intel. As a consultant and agency owner, he has
been responsible for branding, advertising, marketing and communications campaigns for dozens of HPC companies over the
past 25 years.If you don’t know Bernhardt’s name, you will probably recognize his face. He truly is one of the HPC veterans. This
is Mike’s 26th consecutive year for attending the SC conference.
The World’s Most Scalable
Server and Storage Adapter
insideHPC: How much does marketing really help if an HPC
vendor’s target prospects are within the national labs?
Mike Bernhardt: That’s something I’ve always been fascinated with. While many of my marketing peers feel you
don’t need to market to the labs, I truly believe that marketing does matter there. But it’s an indirect influence that
in many cases, really helps the lab procurement teams to
confirm their decisions. In general, the folks from the labs
are extremely well connected through a viral network
that’s beyond the reach of many vendors. But, if they do
need an update from a vendor, they just pick up the phone
and the next day the vendor is out there to give a briefing. And I know you’ve seen that at insideHPC, where
someone from the labs saw a new technology in a booth
video and was on the line with the vendor that very day.
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
Connect-IB FDR InfiniBand Adapter
100Gb/s interconnect throughput
Unlimited scaling with new transport layer technology
137M messages per second
www.mellanox.com/connectib
Connect with us @ MellanoxTech
8

9. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local’s Guide to Restaurants in Denver
Forget Yelp. We talked to the locals to get this listing of the best restaurants in Denver.
Larimer Square –
Mecca For Foodies
Worth a Cab Ride
Seafood
Corridor 44
Table 6
Jax Fish House
1433 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80202
Local’s best-kept secret
1539 17th Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 893-0044
609 Corona Street
Denver, CO 80218
(303) 831-8800
Cru Wine Bar
1442 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 893-9463
Osteria Marco
1453 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 534-5855
Row 14 Bistro
Wine Bar
891 14th Street, #100
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 825-0100
Carmine’s on Penn
Family Italian
92 S Pennsylvania Street
Denver, CO 80209
(303) 292-5767
Oceanaire Seafood
Room
1400 Arapahoe Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 991-2277
(303) 777-6443
Fruition Restaurant
Local farm-grown goodness
1313 E 6th Avenue
Denver, CO 80218
(303) 831-1962
Steak
The Capital Grille
1450 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80202
Best Place for a Group
of 8 or More
Denver Chop House
Brewery
The Chop House has a
private room you can reserve
for no charge
1735 19th Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 296-0800
(303) 539-2500
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
9

10. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Move Over, HPCers: Another Wave of Immigrants is
Hitting Your Shores
By Steve Conway, IDC Research VP, High Performance Computing/Data Analysis
Let’s look at the waves of new users and their requirements. In 1976, the CRAY-1 supercomputer was delivered to its first customer, Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL), as a blazingly fast hardware platform with no operating system. Not to worry: LANL and others in the first
wave of HPC users, primarily government and university
researchers, typically had enough in-house technical savvy and personnel to write software themselves when the
need was critical.
The second wave of adoption carried HPC into industry,
initially the automotive and aerospace sectors, starting
in the late 1970’s. These users required HPC vendors to
provide not only an operating system and other system
software, but to port the key third-party ISV applications
needed to run the users’ industry-specific problems — and
to run the applications with the reliability expected in production computing environments.
The third important wave of HPC market growth began
with the birth of the cluster in the late 1990s and took off
in earnest in 2002. Since that year, clusters have almost
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
How important is SC to the global
HPC community?
How important is SC? I am always amazed how many
people come to SC from around the world. Frequently the
best new ideas (as seen in awards from Gordon Bell to
Best Paper) are from around the world too. HPC is truly and
international field and SC is the best place to see it all.
– Jeff Hollingsworth, University of Maryland
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
single-handedly driven the rapid growth in the HPC market and are now the dominant species of technical servers,
representing about two-thirds of HPC systems sold each
year. The compelling price/(peak) performance of clusters further democratized the HPC market, allowing even
SMBs and SMSOs (small and medium-size science organizations) to benefit from this game-changing technology.
“
The global HPC market’s enormous
expansion from about $2 billion in
1990 to $21.9 billion in 2012 has been
heavily driven by successive waves of
new users, with each new group of
arrivals carrying its own expectations
and opportunities.
“
The global HPC market’s enormous
expansion from about $2 billion
in 1990 to $21.9 billion in 2012 has
been heavily driven by successive
waves of new users, with each new
group of arrivals carrying its own
expectations and opportunities.
Growth-bringing newcomers have
Steve Conway
generally been welcomed to the
fold by prior HPC users — especially those who remember the post-Cold War market dip of the early 1990s, when
there were serious concerns about the long-term viability
of supercomputing. Xenophobia from the HPC establishment has been blessedly rare (although I recall giving a
talk on SMB users at ISC a few years ago and hearing a
few HPC stalwarts in the audience sniff, “That’s not high
performance computing.”).
And now it’s time to roll out the red carpet for another
new wave of users: organizations that are migrating to
HPC to perform high performance data analysis (HPDA),
sometimes in near-real time, using graph analytics,
semantic analysis and other advanced methods.
Examples of large organizations in this category include
PayPal, which IDC estimates has saved over $700 million
by adopting HPC for real-time detection of online consumer fraud; German pharmaceutical firm Schroedinger,
which now screens massive numbers of drug candidates
in the public cloud; and the U.S. Government’s Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has been
evaluating how HPC can help to capture more of the $100
million-plus lost annually to fraud in the programs CMS
oversees. Smaller first-time adopters come in many shapes
and sizes.
Examples here include horizontal players such as Emcien
(Atlanta, GA), whose cloud-based fraud detection algorithm is used everywhere from classified government to
retailers; and vertical players like Apixio (San Mateo, CA),
which applies graphing to heterogeneous medical data to
assess risks, help manage patient populations, and balance quality and costs for large providers.
IDC forecasts that thanks to new arrivals like these, along
with organic growth, the worldwide HPC market will
continue its healthy growth curve to reach $30 billion in
2017. It’s an exciting time to be part of this community.
10

11. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
SC 25th Anniversary – The Complete History of Keynotes
Courtesy of The Exascale Report
DATE
LOCATION
SPEAKER
TOPIC
1988
Orlando, FL
Seymour Cray [Cray Research, Inc.]
What's this about Gallium Arsenide?
1989
Reno, NV
John Rollwagon [Cray Research, Inc.]
Supercomputing – A Look Into the
Future
1990
New York, NY
Danny Hillis [Thinking Machines Corp.]
The Fastest Computers
1991
Albuquerque, NM
Allan Bromley [Chair, OSTP]
The President's Initiative in HPCC
1992
Minneapolis, MN
Larry Smarr [NCSA]
Grand Challenges! Voyages of
Discovery in the 1990s
1993
Portland, OR
Neal Lane [NSF]
HPCC and the NII
1994
Washington, D.C.
Edward McCracken [SGI]
Making the NII Real
1995
San Diego, CA
William Wulf [Univ. of VA]
And Now For Some Really Super
Computing
1996
Pittsburgh, PA
Frances Allen [IBM]
Scaling Up
1997
San Jose, CA
Paul Saffo [Institute of the Future]
Is Digital Dead?
1998
Orlando, FL
Bran Ferran [Walt Disney Imagineering]
There's No Bits Like Show Bits
1999
Portland, OR
Donna Shirley [NASA]
Managing Creativity in Technical
Projects
2000
Dallas, TX
Steve Wallach [CenterPoint Ventures]
Petaflops in the year 2009
2001
Denver, CO
J. Craig Venter [Celera Genomics]
Accelerating Discovery through
Supercomputing
2002
Baltimore, MD
Rita Colwell [NSF]
Computing: Getting us on the Path
to Wisdom
2003
Phoenix, AZ
Donna Cox [Univ. of Illinois, NCSA]
Beyond Computing: The Search for
Creativity
2004
Pittsburgh, PA
Tom West [National Lambda Rail]
NLR: Providing the Nationwide
Network Infrastructure for Network
and Big Science Research
2005
Seattle, WA
Bill Gates [Microsoft]
The Changing Role of IT in the
Sciences
2006
Tampa, FL
Ray Kurzweil [Inventor, Author, Futurist]
The Coming Merger of Biological
and Non-Biological Intelligence
2007
Reno, NV
Neil Gershenfeld [MIT]
Programming Bits and Atoms
2008
Austin, TX
Michael Dell [Dell, Inc.]
Higher Performance: Supercomputing
in the Connected Era
2009
Portland, OR
Al Gore [Former U.S. Vice President]
Building Solutions: Energy, Climate
and Computing for a Changing World
2010
New Orleans, LA
Clayton M. Christensen
[Harvard Business School]
How to Create New Growth in a
Risk-Minimizing Environment
2011
Seattle, WA
Jen-Hsun Huang [NVIDIA]
Exascale: An Innovator's Dilemma
2012
Salt Lake City, UT
Michio Kaku [City Univ. of New York]
Physics of the Future
2013
Denver, CO
Genevieve Bell [Intel]
The Secret Life of Data
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
11

12. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local’s Guide to Bars and Entertainment in Denver
You’ll find that most of the good bars
and entertainment are in the LoDo
area of Downtown. It’s a bit of a hike
from the convention center, but you
can hop on the free 16th Street Mall
Shuttle bus and get off on Blake Street
to catch the action.
Local Brewpubs
insideHPC Pub Crawl
Fine Cigars
Wynkoop Brewing
Company
The Celtic Tavern
Palma Cigars Co
1801 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80202
2207 Larimer Street
Denver, CO 80205
(303) 308-1795
(303) 297-3244
Churchill’s Public House
Delaney’s Cigar Bar
and Lounge
1634 18th Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 297-2700
Breckenridge Brewery
2220 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80205
1560 Boulder Street
Denver, CO 80211
(303) 477-1600
303-297-3644
Drinks with a View
Peaks Lounge
(303) 308-1795
Vesta Dipping Grill
Mid-crawl snack
1822 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80202
at the Hyatt Regency
Convention Center
(303) 296-1970
650 15th Street
Denver, CO 80202
Fado Irish Pub
Restaurant
303-436-1234
1735 19th Street
Denver, CO 80202
Jazz Music Dive Bar
El Chapultepec
1962 Market Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 295-9126
1805 Blake Street
LoDo, CO 80202
(303) 297-0066
Howl at the Moon
Denver
Spas
Veda Salon Spa
1717 Champa Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 308-0524
Izba Spa
Russian Banya Massage Therapy
1441 York Street
Denver, CO 80206
(303) 321-1239
1735 19th Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 291-0880
Tilted Kilt Pub Eatery
For the Coyote Ugly fans
1201 16th Street Mall #120
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 893-5458
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
12

13. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Brian Sparks and Scot Schultz on the Secrets of
Technical Marketing
Inside Technical Marketing in the HPC Space
The HPC marketplace can be very
challenging for companies trying to
make their mark. Time and again,
Mellanox raises the bar in this area
with global events and a keen eye on
building community. We caught up
with Scot Schultz and Brian Sparks
from Mellanox for an insider’s view
of what it takes to succeed.
Brian Sparks
insideHPC: How has marketing in
HPC changed over the years you’ve
been serving the community?
Scot Schultz: Marketing for HPC
Scot Schultz
today, at least from the perspective
of Mellanox, has evolved into more of an educational experience. It’s not just about touting products and solutions
on product specification sheets. We participate heavily
in the community to drive an interactive level of education on why our products and solutions matter. We also
participate with industry organizations such as the HPC
Advisory Council to understand HPC use cases in-detail.
Mellanox has even recently announced the Mellanox
Academy, a new innovative learning experience — complete with access to Mellanox experts and flash-based interactive self-paced units.
Brian Sparks: To add to what Scot said, our participation with the HPC Advisory Council is probably one of
the most rewarding parts about my job. It really is a great
feeling to help provide opportunities for students from
around the world to participate in HPC competitions that
showcase their skills and reward their endeavors in front
of the HPC community and its leaders. In fact, some of
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
How important is SC to the
global HPC community?
How important is SC? It is regarded the HPC conference.
Most of my colleagues ensure to be preset at every SC
because it is our most important networking event. This
creates a unique atmosphere for learning about ongoing
research in the technical program or in private conversations over a beer.
– Torsten Hoefler, ETH Zürich
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
these students have quickly been noticed for their skills
and have received job offers on the show floor. It doesn’t
take a genius to see that new, young blood is critical to our
industry. Much is to be done for us to get to exascale and
beyond, and our biggest problem isn’t so much the hardware and software…it’s people. Say all you want about
the rest, but attracting top talent to this industry and make
it an attractive career for them is probably this industry’s
toughest challenge.
insideHPC: Do you think marketing in this space is easier
or more difficult than in mainstream, commercial computing
markets?
Scot Schultz: Because HPC crosses so many technical
disciplines, it’s more important that the end-users realize
why a technology is an ideal fit for their particular environment, so it’s much more exciting -- as well as challenging.HPC users have a very tailored set of requirements —
from specific versions of their software stack, compilers
“
Typically, HPC and technical computing users can’t afford to rip and
replace, so it’s about marketing the
technology benefits and how the
technology is relevant to their needs
today and tomorrow.
“
An Interview with Brian Sparks
and Scot Schultz from Mellanox
and math-libraries to applied acceleration technologies,
and even storage. Typically, HPC and technical computing users can’t afford to rip and replace, so it’s about marketing the technology benefits and how the technology
is relevant to their needs today and tomorrow. Take for
instance, a cluster that is built in phase I, that will be upgraded to included GPU’s for acceleration in phase II, the
following year — so understanding the benefits of GPUDirect RDMA, which is a no-cost software update, will
further increase performance and decrease the latency of
GPU-GPU communications in their environment; this is
an example of marketing the value of an HPC solution,
not just a product.
Brian Sparks: To me, HPC is much easier in the fact that
you know who your target audience is on a personal level.
In fact, it’s very hard not know everyone involved in any
shape or form of HPC…whether it be an OEM, ISV, or
End-User. That’s what I love about the HPC market, it’s
13

14. “
You may have a great product, but
will anyone hear about it? Not unless
you have strong end-user advocates
who are willing to help market it for
you through word-of-mouth or social
media.
“
very easy to get to know everyone and understand what
they want, as opposed to the millions of data center / commercial end-users.
insideHPC: What mistakes do you see companies make when
launching marketing programs for HPC products?
Scot Schultz: Some companies just assume or expect the
end-users will know how their product will be used, or
more importantly that it could be applied to their environment. But it rarely is about the product, it’s really about
how your product fits into a solution! When a particular
marketing program is launched, it needs to be inclusive
of all the methods you might expect, such as a press release, web seminars, print and web-banner presence,
etc…, but also be inclusive with customer studies on
how it’s technically being used, non-biased white-papers
and of course training. Mellanox even offers its solutions
for evaluation, at no cost to the customer, giving them
the ability to evaluate our technology to ensure it meets
their needs.
Brian Sparks: I wouldn’t go as far as saying people are
making mistakes…it really comes down to budget and
resources. Most of the companies in the HPC market are
very small with limited staff and budget, especially on
the marketing side. HPC is very RD centric, and when
it comes to marketing, I think most of these companies do
what they can with what they have.
insideHPC: Do you think technology companies tend to
underestimate the importance of marketing their wares?
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
What is your fondest memory
of the SC conferences?
My fondest memory of SC? It was my first Beobash. No,
I don’t remember precisely when. I do remember arguing
strongly within SGI about these Linux clusters that had potentially very disruptive potential to our core market, specifically that we should get out front of them and lead with
them. Beobash was nice in that it brought a bunch of like
minded people together to talk informally over drinks.
– Joe Landman, Scalable Informatics
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
Scot Schultz: Technology companies are usually driven by
engineering, especially in their early stages of formation;
so marketing isn’t always the primary concern. However,
a well-balanced organization will certainly value the power of clear messaging on all aspects their products bring
to the market. Just because a product addresses a void or
some need in the market, doesn’t make it a value — you
need to be very clear and demonstrate exactly why one
should care about what you have to offer. A well planned
marketing campaign will make a tremendous impact on
interest and demand generation — technology companies
generally realize this, but the ones that don’t get it aren’t
around for too long — no matter how clever their technology might have been.
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
Which conference or year was
your favorite, and why?
My favorite year? SC12 since I was general chair. It was
like hosting the biggest most expensive party I have ever
thrown. By the end I was twice as exhausted as a normal
year, but didn’t want it to end.
– Jeff Hollingsworth, University of Maryland
Brian Sparks: Not to repeat what I said above, but the
majority of HPC-centric companies are very small and are
in a start-up mentality. It basically means the engineers
of the company must also be marketing-savvy and pull
double duty, otherwise traction in the market, as Scot said,
will not be performed as quickly as they would wish. You
may have a great product, but will anyone hear about it?
Not unless you have strong end-user advocates who are
willing to help market it for you through word-of-mouth
or social media.
insideHPC: How much does marketing really help if an HPC
vendor’s target prospects are the government labs?
Scot Schultz: One thing is for certain, the government labs
employ some extremely savvy technical experts. Another
thing you can be sure of, those experts are still human beings, and desire their technical skills to be kept razor sharp.
Learning is a constant endeavor — Technology changes,
and how one technology might be applied to adjacent
innovations is constantly evolving as well. Cloud-based
computing for HPC workloads is a good example of this,
which is being explored by the labs today — new innovations in this area are happening and Mellanox’s SR-IOV
solutions will play a key role in achieving real bare-metal
performance in these environments… so for Mellanox the
marketing/education for those who work in the government labs is really not that different.
14

15. Brian Sparks: Marketing to government certainly adds
a little complexity. What you did on the commercial side
may not be okay on the Government side. For example,
giveaways at shows are pretty much a no-no, so you really need to change the way you get government labs to
remember you. To me, it’s talking with them at their level.
Remove all of the marketing BS and stick with the technical facts and get across your points on why you believe
your solution is a match to their initiative/project.
insideHPC: How important is it to maintain a balanced international approach to HPC marketing programs?
Scot Schultz: HPC and technical computing has no
boundaries, even more-so today it is not only used by
nearly every country, information and data is exchanged
on a global scale. Humanity is naturally driven to resolve
understanding of key issues; like global warming, earthquake and severe weather prediction, and finding cures
for illness to name a few. Awareness for new technology
and HPC advancements is just as important to even the
smallest nations of the world.
Brian Sparks: Scot is absolutely right. Going back to our
work with the HPC Advisory Council, the Student Cluster
Competitions are very much a global competition. Apart
from the usual suspects, we have had teams from South
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
How important is SC to the
global HPC community?
How important is SC? One downside of HPC is that we
tend to be scattered everywhere, with just a few people
at each organization. SC is *the* place to meet up with
other people involved in similar HPC work, from around the
globe. I can’t tell you how many of my own research collaborations have started through meeting someone at SC who
was interested in similar problems. That’s why I’ve been a
faithful participant ever since my first visit at SC89. I get so
much out of the networking opportunities.
– Cherri Pancake, Oregon State University
Africa (who was the winner at the HPCAC-ISC’13 Student
Cluster Competition), Costa Rica, and for 2014 we expect
a team from Brazil to enter, marking the first time a South
American team has entered the competition. I think you
will always see a weighted approach in terms of marketing programs targeting North America, Europe and Asia,
but more and more companies should be looking in the
southern hemisphere if they aren’t already.
See how teams of international
undergraduate students race to
demonstrate their greatest performance
in designing their own cluster.
Join us in Leipzig, Germany to witness
the best and the brightest on the exhibit
floor during ISC’14.
Visit us to learn more
at Booth #3518
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
15

16. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
An Update to the Exascale Progress Meter
HPC Community Says We Are Moving in the Right Direction
Exascale Report to Recognize One Community Leader as a Vanguard of HPC
By Mike Bernhardt
Over the past three and a half years, we’ve tried to present
a balanced perspective of community opinion by covering
both the positive and negative discussions of exascale.
We’ve praised the worthwhile efforts and creative spirit of
many community leaders, while also stepping up to ‘tell it
like it is’ when politics or lack of leadership were threatening to bring an entire ecosystem to a dysfunctional halt.
In hindsight, perhaps we all expected too much.
In The Exascale Report article from July 2010 titled
DARPA and UHPC: Jump Starting a Revolution, (written
by John Kirkley), we noted that DARPA was looking for a
1,000X increase in computing capabilities by 2015. In that
same issue, we had numerous references to the widening
chasm between two camps on what it would take to get
us there. With much praise from our readers, the Exascale
Report placed a spotlight on the discussion of Evolution
vs. Revolution.
That was then. This is now.
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
What is your fondest memory of
the SC conferences?
My fondest SC memory is my first SC paper presentation in
1992. I was a graduate student and excited to give a talk to
a big audience. They had told us we would have two overhead projectors so my talk was prepared with slides that
need to be moved from one projector to another at specific
points. I get to the room for the talk and find the two projectors were in opposite corners about 75 feet apart. I am
panicked about how I can give my talk while running back
and forth. Eventually I get a “volunteer” to move the slides
between projectors for me at the correct times. Years later
I realize the experience was a great lesson about HPC, the
hardest part is getting the data to move to the right spot
when needed!
– Jeff Hollingsworth, University of Maryland
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
“
It’s difficult for some of us to see and
appreciate important stepping stones
of progress when they aren’t wrapped
in holiday paper and presented as
major milestones.
“
As thousands of global HPC stakeholders prepare to assemble in Denver for the 25th anniversary of the SC conference, SC13, the staff of The Exascale Report is thrilled
to present an upbeat discussion on the topic of Exascale.
Here we are, almost three and a half years later, and it
doesn’t look like we’ll hit that 1,000x performance improvement milestone by the year 2015. Most industry experts feel that 2020 or 2022 is a more realistic timeframe.
And truth be told, there are still arguments, albeit mostly
semantic, around the discussion of a revolutionary vs.
evolutionary approach being the best path to take us to
exascale-level computation.
The HPC Battlefield
Flashback: 25 years of SC conferences
I remember well my first exposure to the HPC community.
I was working with the VLIW company, Multiflow Computer, when I attended Supercomputing ’88 in Orlando.
There were only 1,400 attendees that year, (as a contrast
to the size of SC today), but I was hooked on HPC from
that first event. One thing that I observed back then — and
every year since then, is that this has never been and likely
never will be a community lacking in ideas — or opinions.
Over the past quarter century, Gallium Arsenide and
CMOS prophets took strong positions, as did the opposing
camps of SIMD and MIMD, Open Source and Proprietary,
RISC vs. CISC, NUMA vs UMA, Vector Supercomputers
vs. Killer Workstations, and Supercomputers vs. Clusters.
These battles often rolled into the technology media and
became key discussion points at the SC conferences, going back to the very first keynote in 1988 when Seymour
Cray’s presentation was titled, “What’s All This About
Gallium Arsenide?”
Progress in the HPC space has been steady and impressive, but unfortunately, has created an environment of
high expectations. I think at times, it’s difficult for some
of us to see and appreciate important stepping stones of
progress when they aren’t wrapped in holiday paper and
presented as major milestones.
16

17. The 2013 Reality Check: It’s not unanimous, but it is a
majority opinion. We are making progress.
A small number of leaders in the HPC community rate
our 2012-2013 progress toward exascale as poor. They cite
lack of leadership, inadequate funding, and no solid direction. But based on our recent survey, this view is in the
minority.
The results of our recent Exascale Progress poll tell a different story. Taking an average score from almost 400 survey respondents, the vast majority of HPC stakeholders
believe the Exascale Progress Meter has moved two points
— and in the right direction.
This is indeed good news. The emerging exascale community has spoken. We are making progress.
It is worth noting that a number of respondents cited their
optimism around the appointment of our new Secretary
of Energy, Ernest Moniz. His support of exascale beyond
some initial statements is still to be seen, but many community leaders seem to have a renewed confidence that
we have a supportive voice on the President’s cabinet.
Using the SC Conference as our frame of reference, we’ve
had significant challenges over the past two years as
Washington politics directly impacted the productivity of
our nation’s scientists and researchers — cutting budgets,
Interconnect Your Future
Join us for our Special Evening
Event during SC13
November 20TH 7PM - 10PM
Keynote by Eyal Waldman
President and CEO, Mellanox Technologies
With guest speakers from IBM and NASA
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
How important is SC to the global
HPC community?
How important is SC? Quite important as a meeting place
where high bandwidth, high density, close proximity networking (people) can be accomplished, which is often
harder to do when users/partners are spread out all over
the world. Given the recent massive increase in interest in
massive scale analytics (e.g. “big data”), which leverages
HPC concepts, the relevance of HPC in the global computing community is more so than in the past. Having these
meetings, and being able to extend them to cover topics of
direct relevance to many others is important to keep ideas
and information flowing. Which helps everyone.
– Joe Landman, Scalable Informatics
eliminating travel, and creating environments that made
collaboration a painful process. We’ve had concerns for
the past several conferences regarding attendance at SC,
but for the most part, it was unfounded. Department leaders were able to get a respectable number of key researchers and scientists to the conferences — through dogged
determination and creative accounting.
Through these very difficult times, the HPC community
held strong and pushed forward, driven by passion, determination, and the deep-rooted understanding that scientific discovery and economic progress can’t simply be put
on a back shelf.
If the HPC community has been able to thrive, even conservatively, during the most dysfunctional times, imagine
what we can do with strong leadership. Realistically, we
may not be able to convince Congress or the White House
to allocate the level of funding that is necessary to drive a
national technology agenda at a competitive pace, but this
community, the emerging exascale community, will push
forward. We are making progress.
The real core of the HPC community is the people — and
this is a many, many-core community.
REGISTER
TODAY
www.mellanox.com/sc13
Visit us at SC13
Booth #2722
Connect with us:
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
With our first exascale progress meter back in 2011, the
community rated our progress as 5.5 on a scale from 1
to 20. Most people voiced frustration aimed at funding
agency leadership, along with confusion around an exascale roadmap and which path to take.
Today, that is different. While a few people still feel that
way, the majority of the community is encouraged —
largely because of the new DOE leadership, but also because of the tireless efforts of a few organizations and key
individuals.
17

18. The Exascale Progress Meter (2011 – 2013)
Ve
Li t r y
tl
2012 Progress: 7.5
sive
None
Ve
Li t r y
tl
V
Good G er y
ood
pres
None
e
le
Litt
Im
sive
None
V
Good G er y
ood
pres
sive
2011 Progress: 5.5
e
le
Litt
Im
pres
Ve
Li t r y
tl
Good G Very
ood
Im
e
le
Litt
2013 Progress: 9.5
Our poll reflects the opinions of almost 400 users (nonvendors) throughout the HPC community. On our scale
of 1-20, scores ranged from a low of 3 to a high of 13. The
average came out to 9.5. That score equates with ‘good’
progress.
We expect to see a prototype exascale operating system
sometime in 2016. We have new leadership at the helm of
the U.S. Department of Energy. There is renewed enthusiasm and hope among many HPC stakeholders, and we
anticipate a very exciting SC13 conference.
The general perception of our forward progress on the
path to exascale has improved 4 points since our first
poll in 2011.
So, as thousands of us gather at the Colorado Convention Center and the many fine watering holes of Denver to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the SC conference,
I feel there is a lot for which we should be thankful. We are
making progress.
When we conducted our recent poll to determine community perception of exascale progress, we also asked our
readers if any organizations or individuals stood out and
deserved to be recognized for their leadership and contribution to keeping the HPC community strong and moving
forward. We solicited nominations to recognize one organization or one individual as a Vanguard of HPC.
The response was extremely positive. We received 25 nominations from almost 400 people. Of those 25 nominations,
six individuals are in a very tight race to see who will be
the recipient of the inaugural HPC Vanguard Award.
These six have already risen to the status of legends in
HPC, but only one, as determined by a vote of HPC community peers and colleagues will be selected for the recognition of HPC Vanguard.
The Exascale Report will be announcing the winner of the
first HPC Vanguard Award at SC13 on Monday, November 18th.
25
TH
ANNIVERSARY
Which conference or year was
your favorite, and why?
My favorite year? For me, possibly the most affirming conferences were the ones where accelerators broke out hard
into the mindset of the community. This is in part due to
what we were trying to do in 2002-2006 ... its nice to see
that our predictions (and heck, the whole business model
and ecosystem) evolve right about the way we predicted.
The winner of the inaugural
HPC Vanguard Award
will be announced at SC13
at a press briefing on
Monday, November 18, 2013
at 3:00PM
Community Recognition
The six finalists the HPC Vanguard Award — individuals who have been nominated by a community vote for
having played a key role in moving the exascale progress
meter forward, are:
• Pete Beckman, Argonne
• Bill Dally, NVIDIA
• Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee
• Alan Gara, Intel Corporation
• ill Gropp, University of Illinois
B
(Champaign-Urbana)
• Thomas Sterling, Indiana University
– Joe Landman, Scalable Informatics
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
18

19. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
SC13 Comes to Denver, Colorado
by Robert Murphy
Denver is the capitol of Colorado, and with a population
of 619,968, it is the 23rd most populous city in the US as
of 2011. The western state of Colorado is about 1,800 miles
from New York on the east coast and just over 1,000 miles
from Los Angeles on the west coast.
Nicknamed the “Mile High City” due to the fact that its
official elevation is exactly one mile (5,280 feet) above sea
level, it has one of the highest elevations of all the major
cities in the US. Denver is situated in the South Platte River Valley, just east of the Rocky Mountains. Home to seven professional sports teams, including the Denver Broncos, the Colorado Rockies, the Colorado Rapids and the
Denver Nuggets, it’s an ideal place for the sports fanatic no matter what time of the year it is. For this reason,
www.denver.org rightly refers to the city as a “pro sports
paradise”. The weather in Denver is very inviting. Winters
are remarkably mild with an average high of 45 degrees.
It does get cold enough to snow at times, but it rarely stays
on the ground for very long. If you’re a golfer, you’ll be
happy to know that Denver has plenty of courses, and
they are typically open all year round.
In 1858 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, Denver was
founded by General William Larimer Jr. on the St. Charles
Town Claim as a mining town. Under threat of being
hanged, a representative of St. Charles Town Co. agreed
to give up his claim in exchange for a barrel of whiskey,
which may not seem like much, but considering the alternative, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. This land was
an unlikely place for a city to be founded. Throughout its
early history, many attempts to build cities in Colorado resulted in failure, which is why there are about 500 “ghost
towns” in Colorado today. A ghost town is a town, city or
village that has been completely abandoned usually due
to either natural disaster or economic failure.
Denver could have very easily gone the way of these ghost
towns due to a number of factors. It was not built on an
existing road or railroad, neither was it built on a lake or
river or near a body of water. By all accounts, this was an
unfavorable location for a city. In the words of travel writer Rose Kingsley, “It was as if the angels were carrying a
city to a proper place and accidentally dropped it here.”
In fact, in its early history, Denver was destroyed and rebuilt twice, once as a result of fire, and once as a result of
floods. Yet despite the odds, Denver ultimately survived
and thrived. To a large extent, Denver owes its survival to
ambitious people like William Byers who helped bring the
railroad to the city and who in 1859 founded the Rocky
Mountain News which was used to promote this new city
and give it some credibility in the eyes of the rest of the
nation. Or John Evans who not only built railroads and
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
churches, but also built the University of Denver which
was founded in 1864. Those are just a couple examples of
the entrepreneurial spirit of the early citizens of Denver
that ensured that this city did not become just another
ghost town.
25TH
ANNIVERSARY
Which conference or year was
your favorite, and why?
My favorite year? I’d have to say SC99. That year I was
privileged to serve as conference chair, which gave me a
really unique opportunity to work with all areas of the conference and interact with all our different audiences. It was
an intense experience, but extremely rewarding both professionally and personally. (I suspect any other former chair
that you ask will say something similar!)
– Cherri Pancake, Oregon State University
Over the years, Denver has managed to evolve while still
retaining its historic, old west roots. To this day, snapshots
of its early history have been preserved and are proudly
displayed throughout the city. For example, it is home of
the renowned Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, which was
named best museum of the year by True West Magazine
in 2010. William Frederick Cody, AKA Buffalo Bill, was an
American soldier, bison hunter and showman who lived
from 1856 to 1917. Before Buffalo Bill died, he requested
that he be buried on Lookout Mountain which overlooks
the Great Plains and the Rockies and is located about
half an hour from downtown Denver. In 1921, the Buffalo Bill Museum was constructed at the site of his grave
by Johnny Baker, and since then, it has attracted millions
of visitors and is one of the top tourist sites in Colorado.
The museum is a great spot for history buffs and offers an
informative and entertaining experience, featuring an observation deck, a gift shop, a café, hiking trails and more.
Admission is very affordable at $5.00 per person, $4.00 for
seniors, $1.00 for children between the ages of 6–15 and
free for kids 5 and under. During the winter months, the
museum is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday
from 9AM – 4PM.
Another one of the top tourist sites in Denver is the Denver Performing Arts Complex, also known as the “Denver
Center”, located on 13th street in downtown Denver. This
is one of the largest performing arts centers in the country,
second only to the Lincoln Center in New York City. The
four block, twelve acre site holds ten performance spaces
with a combined seating capacity of over 10,000 people.
The performance spaces include the Ellie Caulkins Opera
House, the Buell Theatre and the Boettcher Concert Hall.
19

20. Here you can be treated to a wide variety of performances,
including Broadway touring productions, opera, dance
and ballet, a major symphony orchestra, a Tony Award
winning theatre company and more. For information
about tickets and upcoming events, check out www.denvercenter.org.
“
The 16th Street Mall is home to the
Performing Arts Center, the Colorado
Convention Center, a comedy club,
hundreds of stores and shops, not to
mention over 200 restaurants including everything from fast food to fine
dining to coffee shops.
“
Denver also has a great zoo, which in 2005 was named the
most popular paid attraction in the Denver metropolitan
area. The 80-acre zoo is accredited by the association of
zoos and aquariums (AZA) and is a member of the world
association of zoos and aquariums (WAZA). Alexander J.
Graham began the zoo in 1896 with an orphaned American black bear cub. It has come a long way since then and
today is home to 3,500 animals from over 650 different
species. The zoo is known for its authentic, naturalistic
habitats which not only serve to enhance the experience
for zoo patrons, but makes life happier for the animals as
well. The Denver zoo is also committed to environmental
sustainability by means of water and energy conservation,
alternative transportation and local food and is currently
working towards becoming a zero waste facility by 2025.
From November through February, admission is $12 for
visitors ages 12–64, $10 for ages 65+, $8 for children ages
3–11 and free for kids 2 and under. Group discounts are
also offered. During the winter, admissions are open from
10am – 4pm with grounds staying open until 5pm.
On the corner of West Colfax Ave and Delaware St you
can find the Denver Mint, a branch of the United States
Mint. You might want to consider taking advantage of the
opportunity to take a free tour, as the Denver Mint is one
of only two US mint locations (along with Philadelphia)
that offers tours to the public. In 1860, during the Pikes
Peak gold rush, Clark, Gruber and Company began to produce coins using gold dust. In 1863, the facilities of Clark,
Gruber and Company were acquired by the US Treasury
for $25,000 and the United States Mint of Denver officially
opened as a United States Assay Office. In 1906, the Denver Mint was moved to its current location on West Colfax
and Delaware and for the first time began to mint silver
coins in addition to gold ones. The Denver Mint has been
an important part of Denver’s history and of the history
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
of the United States. Its founding goes back almost to the
founding of Denver itself and to this day it is the largest
producer of coins in the entire world.
The 16th Street Mall is yet another extremely popular tourist spot in Denver. The pedestrian/transit mall opened in
1982 and originally went from Market Street to Broadway. In 2001, the mall was extended and it now stretches
for over a mile along 16th street in downtown Denver
from Wewatta Street to the intersection of 16thAve and
Broadway.A free shuttle bus service known as “MallRide”
runs the entire length of the mall, stopping at every intersection along the way and also connects to the Denver
Light Rail. MallRide operates 7 days a week. The mall is
home to the Performing Arts Center, the Colorado Convention Center, a comedy club, hundreds of stores and
shops, not to mention over 200 restaurants including everything from fast food to fine dining to coffee shops. VISIT DENVER’s Visitor Information Center is also located in
the mall on the corner of 16th and California. In addition
to all of this, on any given day at the 16th Street Mall, you
will encounter a colorful conglomeration of street performers and vendors.
Public transportation in Denver is affordable and convenient. You can get almost anywhere in the city via bus
and/or light rail. Beginning on April 26th of this year,
Regional Transportation District (RTD) will be adding the
West Rail Line, an extra 12.1 miles of light rail running between Denver, Lakewood and Golden on the W line, making public transportation in the Mile High City that much
more efficient. For information about fares, bus lines and
schedules log on to www.rtd-denver.com. Another available option for transportation is Yellow Cab of Denver
www.denveryellowcab.com which is not only convenient,
but can also be an environmentally friendly way of commuting now that they have added hybrid and propane
cars to their fleet.
As you can see, Denver has quite a bit to offer in the way
of culture and entertainment. This combined with the
pleasant weather and reasonably priced hotels and variety
of dining options should make for a very enjoyable visit
to Denver.
BE SAFE.
One thing you should note when visiting Denver — the crime
rate in Denver is significantly higher than the national average.
Be aware of this and use common sense. As a general rule, it is
probably not the best idea to walk around the city at night if you
are not in a group. Keep that advice in mind and have a safe and
wonderful time exploring the Mile High City.
20

21. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sci-Fi Original: The Observer Effect
by Rich Brueckner
Minute as its impact may be in our physical universe, the fact of quantum entanglement is this:
If one logically inexplicable thing is known to
exist, then this permits the existence of all logically inexplicable things.
– Brian McGreevy, Hemlock Grove
The Accident
6:02 am
PDX Airport
Jake straightened his badge as he
walked up to the security checkpoint.
The TSA supervisor would be onsite
already as always, but it wasn’t about
that. Jake liked to look sharp and the
dream he had last night had rattled him.
He was sure that his coworkers would
see it on his face.
It didn’t help that the dream was still
so vivid in his mind. It had taken place
right here at work, only something in
the dream was different. A feeling more
than anything, Jake still carried with
him the overpowering sensation that he
was being watched.
As he took his seat at the body scanner controls, Jake wondered if he had
made a mistake downloading the Shadow App. It was something new, and
very exciting — technology that enabled people to remember their dreams. As instructed, he recorded them into the
worldwide database. It was so simple after all, just tapping a few characters into his smart phone in the middle of
the night. But as he continued using Shadow, the more effective it became. Dreams no longer faded. Instead, he carried them around with him all day — even the bad ones.
“You look tired, Jake,” said Father Joseph as he entered
the checkpoint with an extra cup of coffee in his hands.
“Care for a Hair Bender Americano?”
A gaunt man in his sixties, the priest had struck up quite
the friendship with Jake over the past few weeks. He liked
his Stumptown coffee from downtown, and by bringing
Jake an extra, he was able to smuggle in his own cup each
day on his way to the meditation chapel at C Gate. They
would often talk over coffee during breaks, and Jake liked
to call him Joseph, the Explainer of Dreams.
Jake was new to the agency. After a couple of tours as an
MP in the Balkans he had wandered from job to job, moonPrint ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
lighting as a security guard at the docks. It was mostly
solitude there, a time of healing for him after accidently
shooting an unarmed man in Serbia.
The man had stolen bread from the PX and ran from
Jake while he was on patrol. In the dark, the pointy
baguette in the man’s hand looked like a knife.
Now Jake took the coffee from his friend and set it on
the console. He could use the caffeine after his rough night.
“Same dream again?” Father Joe asked.
Jake nodded; he raised his hands to describe the box he
had held in the dream, the one with the sounds of breathing inside. As he did, his arm knocked the cup of Stumptown onto the console.
“Dammit!” Jake exclaimed, wiping up
the coffee with his handkerchief. “I’ll be
screwed if I messed this thing up.”
“I’m sorry, Jake. We can talk later. If
you’re ready to test it, I’d like to get scanned
and get on over to the chapel now.”
As he did each and every day, Father
Joe raised his hands above his head as the
scanner did its business.
Jake looked at the display absently.
The monochrome readout was always the
same, but not today. Father Joe’s scan had
shifted red. No concealed objects, just red.
“This scanner is hosed,” Jake said out
loud. “I better test it on myself.” He motioned his colleague Jenkins across the
checkpoint to take his station and then he
entered the scanner. It whirred around
him.
“Looks normal to me,” said Jenkins.
Jake walked around to the display to take a look.
“That’s so odd,” he said. “You ever see colors come out
of this thing?”
Jenkins shook his head and returned to his post as Jake
watched the priest make his way to C gate.
Redshift, he thought to himself. That’s what you see
when something’s moving away.
The Heist
6:20 am
Elephant’s Deli
“Security is all about degrees of belief,” Pritis told his
son as their car entered the parking lot. “Look at that sign:
“Premises under 24 Hour Surveillance.” They think they
are safe, but they are wrong. Your grandfather kept telling me this after he lost everything in the Balkans. People
always want themselves and their stuff to be safe, but they
can never really truly have it.”
21

22. “No,” Papa said to me. “They can only claim they have it.”
Kotas was already taller than his father. At 16, he had
also developed into quite the accomplished thief as well. It
was still dark and the boy’s black clothes and hoodie were
the perfect cover for today’s smash and grab.
Pritis parked the Subaru in the back corner of the lot
and pulled the jammer remote from his pocket. “OK, I’ll
switch on the jammer and you hit those cars over there.
I can’t leave it on for too long as this thing has incredible
range. Your cousin in Russia got quite the bargain on this,
I can tell you.”
Pritis activated the jammer and kept a close eye on his
watch. Two minutes. That’s all young Kotas would need
to break four windows and grab the baggage in the back of
each car. The jammer would scramble the Wi-Fi cameras
watching the lot. It shorted-out car alarms as well, with
something his cousin called a “Rotating EMP pulse.”
“
What power at a distance,” he
thought to himself as the street lights
went out around him. “This device is
almost like a shadow that turns on its
source.
“
He opened the hatch for Kotas and the boy ran up and
loaded in the stolen gear. They then drove out of the parking lot, quiet as a cat in the night.
“Dad, you never told me what really happened to
Grandpa in the Balkans. I think I’m old enough now.”
Pritis sighed. The boy was right. “I will tell you straight
out. He was shot by an American for stealing bread. The
war had destroyed everything. My mom and I, we were
hungry and he went out.”
Pritis felt his voice trail off and they continued on in silence. As he drove, Pritis thought about the dream he had
the night before. He was young again, a small boy waiting
for his father to come home with some food. As he stared
out the window and watched the long dirt road that lead
to the house, gold coins starting raining from the sky.
The Escape
6:22 am
Good Sam Mental Ward
Garth Meeks awoke suddenly from his dream. It was
still dark outside and usually the meds kept him out until
breakfast time at 8:00. It was always the same routine here
in the ward, but not today. Garth was scared today, scared
for his brother, Justin.
“I have to make a phone call,” he said to an empty room.
Garth stood up and walked to the door. It was always
locked, but not today. Today he walked right through,
past the reception desk and out the door into the pale beginnings of morning light.
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
He was hungry and his bare feet were cold on the pavement, but the deli next door was closed. Best to keep moving, he thought. I have to make a call.
The Dark Gravity Experiment
7:30 am
Cloud Labs International
Justin Meeks nodded to the guard and greeted Dr.
Brandt at the door. “You’re right on time, Doctor. I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you in person.”
Brandt shook Justin’s hand with great enthusiasm.
“I could hardly sleep last night, Mr. Meeks. Are the supercomputers fully configured?”
“Yes,” said Justin. “We’ve got the 512-Qubit quantum
machine at Ames allocated for the entire day. It’s been a
bear to deal with all the preprocessing data you supplied,
but we’ve spun up an AWS instance with 50,000 cores to
feed the beast. It’s more than we’ve ever done before.”
Justin led Dr. Brandt to the lab, which was decked out
with dozens of displays. He showed Brandt a status display of the company’s cloud software, a marvel of technology that automated the process of turning thousands of
cloud servers into a virtual supercomputer.
Brandt was noticeably impressed. “This is a veritable
mission control,” he said. “I was very pleased to learn that
my experiment won the contest, especially considering the
quality of the other proposals you received.”
“Yes, we were very impressed with your algorithms,
Dr. Brandt. My CTO tells me your work here today will be
a quantum leap for cosmology.”
“It’s more than that, Mr. Meeks. When we complete
this simulation, we will be able to compare it to measured
results that have been sealed away and encrypted in this
memory key.”
The look on Justin’s face told the doctor he did not understand.
“It’s rather complicated, but please let me explain. Are
you familiar with the Quantum mechanics and the Observer Effect?”
“You mean, where the act of observing has an effect on
the outcome?”
“Precisely. Only in this case, what we will be proving,
or disproving, is the presence of an observer outside of our
universe.”
Justin thought hard about what the Doctor was saying. “But I thought your experiment had to do with Dark
Gravity.”
“Ah yes, yes it does. You see, gravity is a great mystery to us scientists. Out of the four primary forces, it is by
far the weakest. Lucky for us, yes, because without weak
gravity, the universe would have collapsed upon itself
long before life itself could have evolved. It’s almost as if it
was designed that way for a purpose.
“You’re saying that the universe conspired to create
intelligent life?”
22

23. The Visitor
8:03 am
Home of Pritis Admonics
Pritis grabbed the gym bag from the car and entered his
house through the side door. The bag was heavy, as the
fence was unwilling to take most of the booty from the car
heist this morning. Dropping the bag on the kitchen table,
he let out a sigh with the notion of having to sell the rest
of this stuff to the invariable idiots that bought such things
Craigslist.
Pritis looked around the kitchen for moment. Something wasn’t quite right. He heard a sound from the den.
Someone was in the house.
Almost instinctively, Pritis pulled the switchblade from
his pocket. It was a nasty blade, sharp and serrated on one
side.
“Who’s there?” he asked of the darkened room.
Garth stepped out the shadows, his bare feet cold on
the hardwood floor. Still in his nightclothes, he regarded
the knife in Pritis’ hand as something he thought he ought
to recognize. Instead, his drugged mind instructed him to
blink twice and return to the task at hand.
“I have to make a phone call.”
“You’re looking for aphone?” Pritis replied, seeing the
dullness in the man’s eyes. “Idiot, why are you looking for
a phone in my house!”
Garth stared straight ahead and felt his balance shifting
to the left, like part of him was on some kind of boat.
“I have to make a call. I have to call my brother Justin before he opens the vault. I saw it. His computers will
make gold fall from the sky.”
This man was obviously sedated and not a threat. Pritis
folded up his knife.
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
“Do not worry, my friend. I will get you a phone, but
first, we should talk about your brother. Now tell me,
where is this vault you speak of?”
Redshift
7:56 pm
PDX Airport, Checkpoint Charlie
Jake arrived early for the extra shift he picked up from
one of the other Agents, a nice lady named Marge who
was fighting the flu. He would be taking over the scanner from Mason, kind of a squirrelly kid with thick glasses
and bad skin.
“You’re early, Jake,” the kid said. “That’s awesome. It’s
been a hell of day, what with happened to the priest and
then this crazy machine and all.”
“Wait. What did you say about the Father Joe? Is he
okay?”
“
It was time to turn on the jammer,
which then blinked away as it activated. Everything within a line of sight
was going dark.
“
“I’ll get to that. Now, as for gravity itself, obviously we
can feel its effects, but graviton particles themselves have
eluded us. The question is, why? This experiment hypothesizes that the full strength of gravity is an effect that we
cannot observe directly because it is outside of the membrane of our universe.”
“Through the massive computational power and memory of you’re quantum supercomputer, I will be able to
run a complete simulation of the Big Bang, including the
forces of Dark Gravity from an external membrane. And
when I compare these results to the recently measured results from the Planck satellite, I will have my answer.
“The answer to what, exactly?”
“Well it’s very simple, Mr. Meeks. If this experiment
proves that there is an Observer Effect, then I intend to
prove that there is an observer.”
Justin felt his knees going weak. The weight of what this
man was saying came crashing down on him as Dr. Brandt
continued.
“My dear Mr. Meeks. Today, this day, you and I and
this mighty machine you have conjured up will prove, or
disprove, the very existence of God.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. You two were friends, I know. He
passed away in the chapel this morning. It looked like a
heart attack or something because he was slumped over,
still kneeling at the altar when they found him.”
Jake felt the shock of his friend’s death wash over him
for a minute before he could ask more questions.
“Is he gone, kid? Did they haul him out of here?”
“Yeah, it was quite the scene. Cops from the Port Authority. The coroner. The whole bit. And it was a hell of
bad time for this scanner to go nuts. I mean, the line was
backed up already half way to Starbucks and then all the
scans for gate C1 were coming out red all of a sudden.”
“Red scans you say? Is it working now?”
“Thank goodness, yes,” said the kid. “As soon as the
passengers started arriving for the C3 gate, the thing just
started working like normal again.”
“You’re saying all the scans from C1 were red?”
The kid nodded and returned to the scanner controls for
the last hour of his shift.
Jake thought of the blurry red scan of his now deceased
friend. It was a Redshift, like something was moving away.
Now he felt a rush of adrenalin as he made his way
quickly to Gate C1. Soon his panic lead him to a full run.
If he was right, there might still be time to stop the plane.
As he rounded the corner, C1 was empty except for the
ticket agent. Catching his breath, Jake walked to the window and felt his hand reach out to touch the glass. It was
just in time to see the Sun Gold Airways jet streak off into
the sky.
23

24. The Phone Call
8:05 PM
Cloud Labs International
Justin got a text from his head engineer that the simulation run was nearly complete. He should have felt excitement, but his conversation with Dr. Brandt about the
nature of the experiment left him with a creeping malaise.
As he was making his way down the hall toward the
lab, his phone rang.
“Justin? Justin, are you there? This is your brother.”
“Garth? Garth, what are you doing? You always call on
Sundays. What’s wrong?”
“Justin, I’m with the police. They helped me make the
call. I have something, I mean, I have to warn you before
it’s too late. The lady in white woke me up this morning.
She told me your computers are going to open the vault.
You need to go. Gold will fall from the sky.”
“Garth, where are you? Where is the police station??
“Wait. Justin, they say I’m at the Burnside station on
Sixth. Please come now. I’m really scared.”
Justin reached the end of the hall and found Dr. Brandt
waiting for him. He told the man he would be right back,
but the Doctor barely seem to hear him and continued to
stare at the progress display of the cosmic simulation.
The Shadow Turns
8:15 pm
Outside Cloud Labs International
Pritis parked his Suburu in the shadows of an oak tree
across the street from Cloud Labs. As he exited the vehicle,
the noise from the nearby airport was nearly deafening.
He hated such noises, as they reminded him of huddling
in the cellar as a boy during the sorties of the Balkan war.
The roar of the jet began to subside now as he looked up
to Western sky to see the Sun Gold airliner banking away
in its steep ascent. Walking around the back of the building, he surveyed the loading dock for WIFI cameras. Yup,
there were at least three of them trained on the parking
lot. It was time to turn on the jammer, which then blinked
away as it activated. Everything within a line of sight was
going dark.
“What power at a distance,” he thought to himself as
the street lights went out around him. “This device is almost like a shadow that turns on its source.”
Now all he had to do was jimmy the door and see if that
escaped lunatic at the house was right about the vault.
The Observer Effect
8:25 pm
Cloud Labs Mission Control
The blinking cursor on his laptop told Dr. Brandt
that the simulation run was nearly completed. What he
thought would take five minutes ended up taking ten,
and he found his mind wandering back to the dream that
fostered this experiment.
Print ‘n Fly
|
November 2013
He was in a room alone. The room was empty except
for a small wooden box on a table. He very much wanted
to open the box, but he couldn’t move. When he closed his
eyes, he found he was able to move his hands. He reached
out in the darkness and touched the latch on the box. Eyes
still closed, he opened it now. He could feel what was inside, but he couldn’t identify it. And as he was about to
open his eyes and see the contents, he heard the sound of
breathing. Someone was behind him. Suddenly terrified,
he turned and forced his eyes open to the golden morning light that streamed through his bedroom window. He
looked up to see that his hands were raised above the bed
as if he was still holding something, something that had
changed when it was seen.
Now his awareness returned to the lab as the lights in
the lab went out. It was dark except for the glow of his
laptop screen.
Now he heard the sound of something scraping on
metal. Someone was entering through the steel fire door
that lead to the loading dock.
A hooded man entered the lab carrying a small black
remote control in his hand. Brandt found himself at loss
for words as the man approached him.
“You opened the door,” Brandt offered in observation.
“Yes,” said Pritis, looking around the room for a safe.
“Have you?”
Brandt heard the ping from his laptop that signaled
his post-processing job had completed. No time for the
stranger, he looked down to see the simple binary results
of the great experiment.
He felt his breath escape as he froze there in that moment of knowing. In all the faithful, in all the history of the
world, there could be no more degrees of belief.
Puzzled by the man’s reaction, Pritis walked around the
desk to see what the man in the lab coat was staring at on
the display panel.
At first, he didn’t understand. But as he read the words
on the screen, over and over, they first confused, and then
alarmed him. The jammer in his hand began vibrating. He
looked down at it absently. He had forgotten to turn it off!
A noise outside slipped in through the open door behind him. It was the unmistakable roar of jet engines getting louder each second with the Doppler resonance of the
Blueshift, something hurtling down upon them at incredible speed.
In that moment of understanding, Pritis recalled his
dream of treasure falling from the sky. Only this time, he
saw his father in a flash of gold.
About the Author
Rich Brueckner writes about people and technology
at insideHPC. He lives with his young clone in
Portland, Oregon.
24