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RadioFreeHPC

Summary: Podcast for fans of supercomputing and other tech topics. Since 2012. Stay "tuned"! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-free-hpc-podcast/id557931368 http://RadioFreeHPC.com

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 Is it Time for Virtual GPUs? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

VMware's Bitfusion and Dell We start with team introductions, as usual, but drop a bombshell on listeners:  we’re going to be missing Jessi for the next couple of months as she goes off to Marine Officers Candidate School – or as she calls it “screamy summer camp.” It’s sort of like an all-inclusive Sandals Resort. You get your room, meals, drinks, plus many interesting activities and outings – plus thousands and thousands of push-ups. And to top it off, you’re nearly a Marine Corps officer when you’re done! We’re very proud of our Jessi and know she’s going to do great. In unrelated news, Henry reports in from Las Cruces, straight from his echoey bunker. He’d doing great in the new house.AI Anywhere, Anyone? Our main story this week concerns Dell’s integration of VMware and Bitfusion to provide “AI anywhere” type of infrastructure where any set of systems can get access to typically underutilized GPUs sitting anywhere on the network. This could mark the end of “GPU silos” in both enterprise and HPC data centers and lead to much better utilization of expensive GPU assets. The guys bat around the pros and cons of virtualization. Henry raises the point that not all applications will work right out of the box with this type of virtualization (or any virtualization, for that matter). The real key according to Henry is how much computation you need vs. how much data you need to move. So to justify the movement of data, the computational density of the job needs to be high. We kick these concepts back and forth and it’s a good and meaty discussion. Dan and Henry even violently agree a couple of times as we go through it. Amazing.Reasons Why No One Should Ever be Online. Ever.  Russian agents have been attacking a critical part of the Exim Email Transfer Agent – which is very bad. This could allow a ‘man in the middle’ style exploit of emails passing through these systems. Or highly targeted attacks on individual organizations. This is why I’m starting to convert back to fax.Catch of the Week Jessi:  Jessi’s catch of the week is, gasp, another podcast – and not ours! She heartily recommends that our listeners also listen to the Modern Figures podcast. Their motto:  A podcast elevating the voices of black women in computing. Radio Free HPC approved and certified, so you have our permission to listen. Henry:  Several European academic supercomputers have been hijacked in order to run crypto mining. It is unknown how much crypto they mined or the value of it. The attackers were particularly sophisticated when it came to covering their tracks, making the systems look like there wasn’t anything running when they were, in fact, furiously running crypto routines. Crafty stuff. Shahin:  Gives a shout out for Hot Chips, a virtual event this year that will be held later this August.  All of you who always wanted to attend and couldn't should take advantage of this. Either way, we'll probably do a post-show show to bring you the highlights of the event that's putting Silicon back into Silicon Valley. Dan:  The US of A is back in space! Yay! Join us! * Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 NSF, QIS Funding, But First… | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

18th Listener Awards! Run-of-the-mill start as we introduce the team. Henry has quite a bit of echo since he’s now firmly ensconced in his rammed earth survival compound. Big news this week! We finally received our 18th email in our first ever RadioFreeHPC email-to-win contest. First, let’s see what they win… The first item in… Read More »NSF, QIS Funding, But First…

 NSF, QIS Funding, But First... | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

18th Listener Awards! Run-of-the-mill start as we introduce the team. Henry has quite a bit of echo since he’s now firmly ensconced in his rammed earth survival compound. Big news this week! We finally received our 18th email in our first ever RadioFreeHPC email-to-win contest. First, let’s see what they win… The first item in our Grand Prize bundle is a circa 1999 suede leather IBM S/390 laptop bag. It’s roomy at a generous 16”x14”, large enough to house the biggest 17” laptop or maybe 15 or 20 tablets. If that’s not enough room, it also expands an additional 4-5” on the bottom. There are compartments galore under the flaps and you’d better fill them up with soft foam since there’s really no padding around the laptop compartment. The suede leather is a nice touch that adds weight to the bag, it’s not a lightweight in any sense of the word. We’d advise covering the bag if you’re going to be out in the weather, because the suede is sure to stain if it is exposed to water. This bag is in brand new condition and has never been used. Ever. The second piece of this cornucopia of delight is a IBM Mainframe 50th anniversary medallion. It’s a very light weight metal medallion housed in a stunningly clear plastic frame. Put it on your mantle at home and impress your friends and family with how important you must be to have such a keepsake. The final gift is a cassette tape of an IBM Talk S/390 episode covering S/390 integrated solutions. If you still have a cassette player, this will provide minutes of mainframe tech talk, marketing tips and keys to closing that big deal. So you want to know who won this amazing collection of swag? Listen to the show and find out, or follow us on Twitter and look a couple of weeks back!Government Bills Aim to Up the Ante for Science In the rest of the show we discuss some recent government news. First is that the US House is looking to devote an additional $1.25 billion over the next five years. But even bigger is the proposal to expand the US National Science Foundation by $100 beeelion – which is more than 4x the size of the existing organization. We discuss the implications of this and how this might change the game in terms of base research. There is also a bill to significantly dial up funding for Quantum Information Science. All good and the team s excited to see these moves and hopes they'll proceed swimmingly!Reasons Why No One Should Ever be Online. Ever. Brace yourselves, GitHub has been attacked! Developers and users alike unaware that they’re downloading malware when they’re getting their open source on. Ouch.Catch of the Week Jessie:  Campaign Zero and Police Scorecard aim at reducing police violence. Henry:  UK broadband performance is holding up in these virus-rampant times. Yay for the UK, great job. Dan:  Skinny gene discovered! Eat all you want and never gain weight. Is it true?Join us! * Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 New Top on the TOP500 – 415 PF! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Breaking News Edition We have a new #1 on the TOP500 list of most powerful supercomputers! Big gets bigger by a factor of 2.8x as Fujitsu’s “Supercomputer Fugaku” tops the list at 415 PFlops.  There are also an additional three new entries in the top ten. We break down the top of the list in this fascinating episode of RadioFreeHPC. Listen to us now! It will help you to amaze your friends and dismay your enemies with your newfound knowledge of the list. We have it here and first! Or at least not much later than others!Join us! * Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 @HPC_Guru Speaketh! Kind of. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Our Guest Today is... In this extraordinary episode of Radio Free HPC, the crew interviews the industry icon that is @HPC_Guru. This is the first time that anyone has been granted an interview with him and we’re proud to have been chosen for this honor. We posed an even dozen questions and received very thoughtful responses, which we rendered out in a machine voice in order to fit our podcast format. In the interview, HPC_Guru tells us his top five cool things in HPC today, why he remains anonymous, where he thinks HPC hardware will be in 10 years and who he thinks will be the first to reach exascale. And that’s just four of our 12 questions! We don’t have to tell you that @HPC_Guru is a legend in the industry, as is his Twitter account. He has more than 15,000 followers and has tweeted over 38,000 times. Just to put that in context, if his average tweet is 150 characters, then he’s tweeted 5.7 million characters. Or if you look at it as words, HPC Guru has beaten the hell out of Leon Tolstoy’s War & Peace. Tolstoy came up with a piddling 587,287 words in his novel while HPC Guru has written roughly 712,500 words – and HPC Guru has written about more difficult content. Supercomputing is much more complex than Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. While this is impressive, it’s not quite as many words/characters as Timothy Prickett Morgan writes in a typical year. If you printed up HPC Guru’s tweets, the tome would come in at more than four pounds, and that’s single spaced. That’s as much as a high-end laptop, including the storage and maybe even the power brick. Looking for another metric? If @HPC_Guru printed out each of his tweets, two per sheet of 8.5 by 11 inch paper, and laid them end to end, it would stretch a little over 3.3 MILES. Give this groundbreaking episode a listen, in fact, listen to it twice to get the full impact.Join us! * Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 @HPC_Guru Speaketh! Kind of. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Our Guest Today is… In this extraordinary episode of Radio Free HPC, the crew interviews the industry icon that is @HPC_Guru. This is the first time that anyone has been granted an interview with him and we’re proud to have been chosen for this honor. We posed an even dozen questions and received very thoughtful… Read More »@HPC_Guru Speaketh! Kind of.

 HPC on the Edge | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

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

 HPC on the Edge | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

New Book Makes Sense of Edge Computing After our typical inane opening, which includes an update on Henry’s Las Cruces bunker with  21” rammed earth walls, we get quickly down to business and begin our interview with very special guest, Dr. Cody Bumgardner, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kentucky.… Read More »HPC on the Edge

 A is for Ampere, Nvidia A100's Public Debut | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

NOTE:  The publication of this episode was delayed due to the untimely passing of our partner and pal Rich Brueckner. So what we’re announcing as "breaking news" isn’t so fresh today, but our takes on what NVIDIA’s new A100 processor brings to the table are still valid.  Breaking News! This special edition of RadioFreeHPC takes a deep dive into NVIDIA’s spanking new A100 GPU – which is an impressive achievement in processor-dom. The new chip is built with a 7nm process and weighs in at a hefty 54 billion transistors and capped at 400 Watts. It sports 6,912 FP32 CUDA cores, 3,456 FP64 CUDA cores and 422 Tensor cores. This 8th generation GPU, using what the company calls its Ampere technology, is a replacement for both their V100 GPU and Turing T4 processors, giving the company a single platform for both AI training and inferencing. We talk about the specs of the A100, breaking down its game both in terms of typical HPC FP64 processing and FP32 (and lower precision) computing for AI workloads. On the HPC side, the new GPU seems to offer an across the board 25% speedup, which is substantial. But the A100 really shines when it comes to tensor core performance which the company reports at an average speed up of 10x on Tensor Core 32 bit vs. V100 FP32. New features of the A100 include Sparsity (a mechanism that doubles sparse matrix performance), a much speedier NVLink (2x), and a hardware feature that allows the A100 to be partitioned into as many as 7 GPU instances to support individual workloads. All in all, this is an amazing new processor, a behemoth large and hot, but so fast, chip that is heavily tilted towards new AI and Tensor workloads with a passing but welcome nod to 64-bit HPC apps. Join us!* Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 A is for Ampere, Nvidia A100’s Public Debut | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

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

 Tribute to Rich Brueckner, 1962-2020 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

by Dan Olds This is a tough blog to write for this RadioFreeHPC episode. This is the episode where we say a final goodbye to our co-founder and comrade in arms Rich Brueckner. Rich passed away suddenly last week leaving us shocked and shaken. The whole genesis of RFHPC came out of Rich and I sitting around the press area of GTC 2012 and talking about what we could do to bring a little more life into the HPC community. We batted around several ideas but finally came up with the idea of a long-form podcast that would tackle every topic in tech – as long as it was big and fast. With that idea in mind, we recruited Henry Newman, started production, and the rest is history as they say. We added Shahin Khan to our host lineup to add more technical heft and to give us increased flexibility to cover our travel schedules. But after nearly six years, Rich’s ultra-busy schedule didn’t allow him to continue working with us on RFHPC, but he remained a friend of the show, promoting it on his InsideHPC site. Our latest addition to our roster is rookie host Jessie Lanum, an outstanding university student who has added enthusiasm and a youthful viewpoint to our show. In this episode, we pay tribute to Rich, sharing our own thoughts about him - plus the thoughts and memories from HPC community members. There are several funny stories in here, along with heartfelt  acknowledgement of the vital role Rich played in our HPC community. So please give a listen and share your thoughts and stories. I’d also like to call your attention to the following links. These are shows that either feature Rich prominently or have us talking about Rich in depth. They really show his sense of humor, how highly we regarded him and his commitment to HPC. Take a look or listen, I think you’ll enjoy them…. RF-HPC Episode 18-1: This is our first holiday episode. In this show, Henry and I discuss the perfect Christmas gifts for Rich and make fun of his Apple addiction. Check out the videos on these picks, they’re funnier than the audio version. RF-HPC Episode 18-2:  In this one, Rich and Dan talk about the perfect Christmas gifts for Henry. The picture of Henry as a Tibetan monk is one of Rich’s all-time favorites. RF-HPC Episode 18-3:  To finish out this series, Rich and Henry talk about what they’d give me for Christmas. RF-HPC Episode 218:  A Hard Look at Santa’s Big Data Challenges RF-HPC Episode 214:  Rich & Dan report on the CHPC South African conference, plus the CHPC cluster competition too! Thank you for all the memories and all of your hard work, Rich. You did good for a lot of people. Join us!* Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

 Tribute to Rich Brueckner, 1962-2020 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

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

 Debate This: Server Sales Up 30% in Q1, Says Analyst Firm | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We start off with an update from our crew. Jessie is at Purdue putting her belongings into storage in order to clear out her current abode. Shahin is doing fine, all quarantined up down in Silicon Valley. Henry has big news:  he’s completed his north-south journey and is now staying in a hotel very close to his newly constructed survivalist bunker near scenic Los Cruces, NM. What’s great for the workers finishing up the house is that Henry will now be there EVERY DAY to help them expedite construction and offer pro tips. That must be a dream come true for them. Henry also announced that he’s going to host us RadioFreeHPC hosts for a live broadcast from his compound sometime in August. He’ll have his home pizza oven fired up and we’ll have a veritable feast while taking copious video of his new bunker and putting together a couple of shows. It should be a lot of fun. Getting to our main topic, we discuss how the server business has been very healthy in the first quarter – growing more than 30% - which is astounding given these virus laden times. Henry links these results to his research that shows that Akami’s bandwidth use has grown a similar 30% during the first quarter. We speculate (and argue a little) over whether the bump in server sales can be attributed to folks buying pre-emptively to handle anticipated demand or whether they’re meeting current demand. Shahin and Dan feel that there was already excess capacity, since there haven’t been any reports of internet speed/capacity problems during the quarantine. Our discussion continues on with speculation about just when the supply chain kink caused by the virus impacting component makers will hit the market. The lost production can’t be made up instantly and we also believe that there is probably going to be a demand shock at least with enterprise and, to a lesser extent HPC customers, because they simply don’t have the will to launch new IT projects in this environment. We’re not entirely sure we buy these numbers, since it’s from an analyst firm we’re not familiar with. Reasons Why No One Should Ever Be Online. Ever.Henry dug up a very timely hack this week, with an article detailing how hackers have built a Trojan Horse version of the widely-used Zoom video conferencing software. If you download Zoom from the wrong place, it will install Zoom – but with added ‘features’ that will allow hackers to pown your box – definitely not fun. So be sure you get your Zoom from either the company itself or from a reputable source. Catch of the WeekJessi:  Her topic is how spending on cyber security lobbying has more than tripled in the last few years. The cybersec folks are, thankfully, lobbying in favor of more security and privacy, often in direct opposition to industry giants Facebook and Google. Henry:  The above referenced Akami article is Henry’s catch. He discusses how Akami is pumping out 167 terabits of data per second, but warns that this won’t be nearly enough when you consider the potential additional traffic due to the conversion to 5G. He puts forward a compelling argument that web infrastructure isn’t ready for the data deluge that is 5G. Nicely done, Henry. Shahin:  Brings up our recent “Charles Babbage:  His Life & Times” dramatic presentation (it was awesome) to discuss how Baidu is now able to clone voices with just 3.7 seconds of samples. With more samples, it can change accents and even genders. He suggests that this could be good for our next drama foray. Dan:  Starts a group discussion about how some college students are now suing their host institutions over Covid19 disruptions in order to get a portion of their tuition and fees returned or reduced.  Jessi, as our resident undergrad, weighs in with several powerful points while the others chip in with their old man knowledge. Join us!* Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on

 Debate This: Server Sales Up 30% in Q1, Says Analyst Firm | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

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

 ColdQuanta Serves Up Some Bose-Einstein Condensate | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

The show starts with Dan, Jessi and Shahin in attendance. Henry is traveling from his old home base in Minnesota to his new command bunker in lovely Las Cruces, NM. Last we heard he was in Kansas City and making good time. We’re not sure how long we’re going to have to do without him as Comcast seems to be slow playing him on his internet installation timeline. Why Freeze the Whole Room If you Just want a Frozen Atom?Our big topic today is the quantum computing company ColdQuanta. It’s headed by an old pal of ours Bo Ewald and has just come out of stealth mode into the glaring spotlight of RadioFreeHPC. They have a unique approach to quantum computing, trapping atoms themselves to create Bose-Einstein Condensate. This is a fifth state of matter, which matters quite a bit. When you freeze a gas of Bosons at low density to near zero, you start to get macroscopic access to microscopic quantum mechanical effects, which is a pretty big deal. With the quantum mechanics start, you can control it, change it, and get computations out of it. The secret sauce for ColdQuanta is served cold, all the way down into the micro-kelvins and kept very locally, which makes it easier to get your condensate. The company is focused on measurement and sensing but also mention straight computation, the latter like most of the other quantum competitors. They were the first company to put their quantum computer in space and the first to create Bose-Einstein Condensate while in orbit at the International Space Station. Catch of the WeekJessi:  Want to chill out and help NASA at the same time? Jessi has found a way with NeMO-Net, a game where users cruise through an animated ocean floor and classify coral structures. Your answers are then fed into NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer, which uses the data as fodder to improve it’s own identification prowess. It’s a great way to while away the hours during these Covid19 shut downs, right? Shahin:  has two catches, the first is a celebration of IBM’s quant-iversary, marking the fourth anniversary of them having a quantum computer on the web – many happy returns to Big Blue. They’re also sponsoring a contest, see the web link for details. In his second catch, Shahin shamelessly promotes his recent talk at the HPC AI Advisory Council virtual Stanford conference. He did a great job on covering just about every buzzword topic in the industry in only 30 minutes, well done. Dan:  Dano likes fast things and seeing fast things get even faster. This is what attracted him to the story about ISV Risk Fuel and Microsoft’s Azure posting an article boasting a 20 million x speedup of derivative processing.  A 20 million times speedup of anything is pretty significant and they achieve this with a combination of 8 NVIDIA V100 GPUs (w/32GB memory each), InfiniBand and Risk Fuel’s amazing software. What’s great about this is that with this speed the model has complete fidelity with traditional calculations. In other words, you can speed all you like without any downside when it comes to accuracy – amazing stuff. Join us!* Download the MP3  * Sign up for the insideHPC Newsletter * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on Google Play  * Subscribe on iTunes  * RSS Feed * eMail us

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