In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team interview Fritz Ferstl, CTO of Univa. Topics include Big Data, HPC, and the continuing convergence of both.

While what we think of as traditional HPC may differ greatly from Big Data analytics, that seems to be changing. With a long history in high performance computing and customers in both worlds, Ferstl shares his unique perspective on where the two worlds overlap and where the potential is greatest for synergy in the future.

This has to be our best show yet, so be sure to check it out.

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In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team discusses Lustre and LUG 2013 with Brent Gorda. Now part of Intel in their High Performance Data Division, Gorda was CEO of Whamcloud when the company was acquired last summer.

Gorda recently wrote a post about the rapid growth of the Lustre community, so we started our discussion there and learned a good deal more about the popular file system.

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In this follow-up podcast to the GPU Technology Conference, the Radio Free HPC team mulls over a talk by GE’s Dustin Franklin, GPU app specialist. Dustin’s topic was GPU-direct RDMA; was this a first look at real-world RDMA with GPU-to-GPU communications?

Follow along as the guys describe flow charts on technical slides that are not yet approved by viewing for the “great unwashed masses” – but make no mistake, they’re impressed by what they saw. Dan “knows a guy” who can divulge more, and offers to arrange an inquisition with Henry. Henry promised to “be nice,” whatever he means by that. Rich missed this GTC session and several others while “conducting interviews,” whatever he means by that. Dan offers another characterization.

And this just in: there’s a great deal of information available on the Internet.

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In this episode of Radio Free HPC, Rich, Dan, and Henry discuss the recent buzz surrounding FGPAs. After being sidelined by accelerators, they’re increasingly being used in appliances.

Big vendors are talking about FPGAs not only for appliances but for general-purpose systems as performance assists. Are we headed back to the future?

The guys discuss the ins and outs of FPGAs and why, in some cases, they could be a huge win for the organizations that implement them. But is the architecture flexible enough? For enterprise and Big Data, perhaps it is. If you need to perform the same algorithms over and over again, FPGAs could be a perfect fit.

As with all things tech, there are a few cautionary notes to be sounded. Amassing more and more appliances can lead down a tricky road. Will their use in workload-optimized systems lead to vendor lock-in? Can you really teach an old FPGA new tricks? And can they be weaponized?

Most importantly: how are servers like cattle? Tune in to find out…

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In this episode of Radio Free HPC, the topic of Exascale is under the hosts’ scrutiny once again as they discuss some interesting stories released by The Exascale Report featuring opinion by Bill Gropp of NCSA and Bill Harrod of DOE.

Rule #1: You do not talk about Exascale. (Kind of like rule #1 of Fight Club, except the guys keep breaking it.) Why not? Because too many of the people talking about Exascale are having the wrong conversation about it.

What should the conversation be? Should it be about the systems themselves, or about the work that can be done only with those systems — the science that we can’t yet do? Spoiler alert: Dan and Henry disagree on this. But a peaceful vibe reigns once again as they discuss what The Exascale Report calls “The Three Noble Truths” of Exascale, which sounds kind of Zen and cool — as if it was coined by Exascale Samurai.

And finally… is it time to talk about Zetta-scale?

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In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at at a new book called The Human Face of Big Data by Rick Smolan. The book details the ways in which Big Data affects our daily lives and predicts the ways it will transform our future.

The big-picture overview the author presents is that of our planet becoming a giant nervous system in which we, its inhabitants, are the nerve endings. Or as his ten-year-old son put it, “Isn’t this like growing another eye?” Indeed it is: with all of this sensory input, we are beginning to see a third dimension.

It’s also one of those we-don’t-know-what-we-don’t-know propositions. Just as we could never have imagined how transformative the Internet would be, we can’t predict where Big Data will take us. We don’t even know, really, how to maximize the data we’re collecting right now.

The Human Face of Big Data is available — well, probably lots of places — but here’s the Amazon link, because they have so much data on us already.

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In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team discusses recent reports of Intel’s plans to bust up the cable TV industry by offering a service or set-top box that would allow customers to buy channels and individual shows a la carte, and — AND — access a cloud-based DVR service. The stuff of dreams, right?

But not so fast. Acquiring licenses for each bit of content, and dealing with Hollywood in general, is not for the faint of heart.

What’s in this uphill climb for Intel? Chips in every household; entry into a massive market; and another way to offset declining PC sales.

What’s in it for consumers seems pretty clear, but there’s at least one major caveat: What’s to stop, say, Comcast from raising rates for its Internet cable in order to cover lost revenue? Then we’re all paying Intel and our local cable provider. Is this just “Meet the new boss… same as the old boss?”

This episode also gives us a peek into the guys’ viewing preferences and current entertainment setups. (Henry: The Food Network instead of ESPN? Really?)

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In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at success factors for technology Startups. Prompted by a recent interview with Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolshiem, the discussion centers around lessons learned from Sun’s decline and eventual acquisition by Oracle.

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In Part 3 of this special Holiday podcast, Rich and Henry discuss the perfect Christmas gift for Dan, a curmudgeon of the highest order.

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In Part 2 of this special Holiday podcast, Rich and Dan discuss the perfect Christmas gift for Henry, a man who some consider to be wound a little too tightly at times.

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