ISC High Performance

ISC High Performance

ISC High Performance is an annual international conference and exhibition focused on supercomputer systems, high-performance computing technologies, and computational science. The event assembles researchers, engineers, vendors, and policymakers to present advances in HPC architectures, parallel computing software, and large-scale simulation applications. Its program combines peer-reviewed papers, vendor exhibits, keynote lectures, and competitive benchmarks drawing participation from national laboratories, universities, and corporations.

History

ISC began in 1986 as a gathering for European supercomputer users and vendors and evolved alongside milestones such as the emergence of vector processors from Cray Research, the rise of massively parallel processing exemplified by Thinking Machines Corporation designs, and the adoption of cluster computing influenced by initiatives at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Over decades ISC tracked shifts from proprietary systems like Cray-2 to commodity-based clusters using Intel and AMD processors, and later to accelerator-driven platforms featuring NVIDIA GPUs and AMD Instinct accelerators. The conference paralleled major projects including TOP500 rankings, the establishment of PRACE in Europe, and international efforts such as Exascale Computing Project and Human Brain Project. Organizers and speakers have included representatives from institutions such as Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, and industrial partners like IBM, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Fujitsu.

Conference and Exhibition

The ISC venue combines a technical conference with a commercial exhibition showcasing hardware from suppliers like Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices, Lenovo, and Dell EMC. Exhibitors demonstrate storage technologies from EMC Corporation, interconnects from Mellanox Technologies (now part of NVIDIA), and emerging processors from companies such as ARM Limited and SiFive. The exhibition attracts delegations from research centers including CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sponsorship and partnerships have involved organizations like European Commission, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, and industry consortia such as OpenACC and OpenMP ARB. Venues for ISC have included halls in cities like Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Leipzig.

Programming and Events

ISC's technical program features peer-reviewed papers, poster sessions, and tutorials with participation from academics affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, and University of Oxford. Keynote addresses have been given by figures connected to projects like Blue Gene, Titan, and Summit, and by directors from laboratories such as National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Workshops cover software ecosystems including MPI, OpenMP, and Kokkos as well as languages and tools developed at institutions such as University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Tutorials and panels engage with initiatives like Machine Learning collaborations at Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research, and startups incubated in Silicon Valley. The conference often hosts vendor summits, user group meetings for systems such as Cray XC Series and HPE Apollo, and collaborations involving consortia like Gauss Centre for Supercomputing.

Awards and Competitions

ISC organizes and endorses awards and competitions tied to performance and innovation. Participants submit entries to benchmark-oriented events such as the TOP500 and High Performance Conjugate Gradients competitions associated with organizations like University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Student competitions and challenges attract teams from institutions including Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Tokyo, and National University of Singapore. ISC has partnered with prize programs and societies including ACM, IEEE, and SIAM to recognize achievements in areas like computational science, parallel programming models, and scalable application performance. Awardees have included developers of libraries from LLNL and research groups behind numerical packages such as PETSc and Trilinos.

Impact on High-Performance Computing

ISC has influenced procurement, standards, and research directions across the global HPC community by providing a forum where national labs like Sandia National Laboratories and agencies such as European Space Agency and NASA interact with vendors and academia. The conference has helped surface trends in exascale planning, energy-efficient designs pursued by companies like Intel and ARM, and software portability strategies promoted by projects such as Portability Advisory Committee and the Kokkos effort from Sandia National Laboratories. ISC proceedings and vendor announcements often precede major system deployments at institutions including Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, and Riken Center for Computational Science. By convening communities around benchmarks, procurement case studies, and collaborative research initiatives, ISC contributes to benchmarking cultures exemplified by SPEC and standards-driven efforts from bodies like ISO and IEEE Standards Association.

Category:Conferences Category:Supercomputing