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Main Sponsor:
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About ISC
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Background
History
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BACKGROUND
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Every June, many of the world's leading experts in high-performance computing convene in Heidelberg to discuss the latest advances in
supercomputing and to get a
glimpse of what the future holds. Now in its 19th year, the International Supercomputing Conference, or ISC, was the first
international meeting to focus solely on
supercomputing and is now held since 2001 every June in Heidelberg, home to Germany's oldest university and now a leading research center.
The conference was created - and is still led - by Prof. Hans Werner Meuer of the University of Mannheim, where he was director of the computer center for more than 25 years.
Currently, Meuer is a member of the governing boards of several German technology firms and he is still professor of computer science in Mannheim.
Meuer first became involved with supercomputers and parallel computing more than 20 years ago. In 1986,
he co-founded and organized the first Mannheim Super Computer Seminar, which has evolved into ISC.
"At the time, supercomputing was filled with promise and many exciting new technologies on the horizon,"
Meuer said. "What was missing was a forum where experts from around the world could meet, share their ideas, conduct spirited discussions and gain new insight.
Every year, more and more people are finding the ISC to be an ideal setting for such exchanges."
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One topic that generates discussion at ISC is the release of the twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world's supercomputers.
The TOP500 project was launched in 1993 by Meuer and Erich Strohmaier (previously at the University of Mannheim and now a researcher at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California). Jack Dongarra (of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
joined the project from the beginning and Horst Simon from NERSC is the fourth author since 2000.
The TOP500 list, which is greatly anticipated by manufacturers, ranks the 500 fastest computers by performance.
The first list of the year is released at the ISC in June, while the second is released at the SCxy conference in November. Over the years,
the list has proven to be a valuable tool for tracking and analyzing trends in computer performance,
computer technology and computer architecture.
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One obvious fact gleaned from the TOP500 list is that the battle for leadership in the industry is between manufacturers in the USA and Japan. And it is in Europe where systems made in both countries are installed, operated and really put through their paces. As a result, ISC is the place where users of all systems can meet to compare hype with real-world performance, share honest assessments and get immersed in details.
A hallmark of the ISC is a single-track program of invited speakers. This format allows all conference participants to attend the same sessions, rather than having to choose between competing sessions. New for ISC2004 is a call for papers, which will highlight important contributions in three areas; these papers will be included in the program. Finally, ISC has earned a well-deserved reputation for its after-hours social events which epitomize Gemuetlichkeit, that German tradition of warm hospitality, combined with the incomparable beauty and intellectual tradition of Heidelberg.
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