Barriers to Industry HPC Use or “Blue Collar” HPC as a Solution

1. Barriers to Industry HPC Useor“Blue Collar” HPC as a Solution Presented by Stan Ahalt OSC Executive Director Presented to HPC Users Conference July 13, 2004 For more information on OSC, please visit www.osc.edu

2. Brief Outline • Barriers to Entry • Context (Science & Engineering) • Solutions • Blue Collar HPC

3. Barriers to Entry • Traditional • Technical Expertise • Pricing and Support • Intellectual Property • Security • ROI • Non-Traditional • Cultural Barriers • Lack of Imagination • Not forging new tools and utilities • Risk Aversion

4. Panelists’ Barriers to Entry

5. But there is another way to look at why we don’t currently employ HPCs… • As the previous panelists discussed, if we had a compelling reason to make use of larger HPCs, we would… • So why don’t we?

6. Context (Science and Engineering): • While there have been significant advances in • computer hardware, as well as … • sciences and engineering, resulting in greater expectations, as well as greater challenges • And while HPCs offer many benefits to various applications: • Codes that benefit from the speed-ups due to a modest number of processors (8-32), all the way up to…. • Extremely large problems that need (many) thousands of processors.

7. An example

8. However…. • the HPC software that enables (realizes) the science on the hardware – this software needs dramatic improvement • For example, few simulation environments aggressively take advantage of parallel computing. • Conversion of serial codes requires major effort • So the entire spectrum of HPC applications will reap the benefits derived from improved programming models

9. At the High End of the Spectrum • Benefits are primarily scientific - solving problems that cannot be otherwise tackled • A special barrier is the inherent difficulty of “large-code” programming • The problem will be exacerbated by dramatic increases in processors (100K processors) • But, national interests mandate heroic programming efforts and significant long-term funding.

10. One Solution: Refocusing HPC • Develop a full-spectrum HPC market. This will: • Greatly improve our national competitiveness • Strengthen national security • Create well-paid, interesting jobs • These efforts will ultimately impact high-end computing • So, focus our innovations, advances, and education on the entire application spectrum • “Small” jobs today will become the large jobs of tomorrow. • The greater impact will be for the entire computing market (scale up and scale down!)

11. The Current Market for HPC 8 Ideal Market for HPC Increased Productivity Gains In Industry and Engineering Blue-Collar Computing Increased Gains in Scientific Discovery Number of Tasks Number of Users Number of Applications Easy Pickings Competitive Necessity Business ROI Programmer Productivity Current Market for HPC Heroes 1 2 4 64 DoD NSF DoE Amount of Computing Power , Storage , & Capability # of Dollars

12. “Blue-Collar” HPC Applications • The barrier is the lack of parallel programming skills on the part of the domain scientist or engineer • Result is that engineers settle for a sub-optimal design • Removing this barrier will: • Lead to better products • Help our innovators to “Think Faster” • actuate the next long-lived productivity expansion • And while the benefits will be primarily economic, the heros (and the rest of the computing community) will also reap the benefits!

13. Summary: The transition to “blue collar” computing will: • Naturally break down many of the current barriers to entry, and • Provide the nation with a vitally important economic edge – allowing the United States to maintain its economic leadership in the global marketplace • But, it requires a paradigm change in our way of thinking, our way of teaching, and our way of approaching HPC.