Clemson alumnus to discuss Stampede, Exascale computing

Ryan Real, Public Information Coordinator
September 21, 2016

Dr. Dan Stanzione, the Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin, will speak on “Many Core Computing at Exascale: A Hidden Software Crisis?” at Clemson University’s Watt Family Innovation Center Auditorium on Friday, September 30 from 11 a.m. to noon.

The Stampede System at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin is the leading system in the National Science Foundation’s open Cyberinfrastructure for research, providing more than 7 million simulations for more than 10,000 researchers in its life.   It was also the first system in the world to make use of Intel’s first generation Xeon Phi Many Integrated Core (MIC) technology, one of the potential technology paths on the path to Exascale computing and beyond. Stampede will soon be replaced by Stampede 2, which, like its predecessor, will  be one of the Top 10 systems in the world in 2017. Stampede 2 will deploy the next generation of the Xeon Phi processor, “Knights Landing,” a 68 core die.

This talk will give an overview of the Stampede project and the state of progress towards Exascale, and in particular look at  early application and micro benchmark results using the new Xeon Phi processor, in comparison to previous generations of processors, and look at how the factors in system architecture that determine performance have changed dramatically over the last few years, and the implications for software design and performance tuning for scientific applications.

Dr. Stanzione received both his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Clemson in 1993 and 2000, respectively, and his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Clemson in 1991.