Although the SC conference is well-known as the place to catch up with colleagues for one-on-one conversations, sometimes you want to have an informal chat with a group of like-minded folks. Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions fill the bill, providing focused but informal venues. BoFs have long been a staple of SC conferences. And SC08, to be held November 15-21 in Austin, will continue this tradition with a full schedule of exciting and informal interactive sessions devoted to special topics, including:

• Systems (e.g. Ranger, Roadrunner); Product Lines (e.g. BlueGene, Altix, Cell); and Architectures (e.g., clusters, grids)
• Software Packages (e.g., MPICH, OSCAR, PBS, Rocks, TotalView)
• Lists and Competitions (e.g., Top500, Green 500, HPC Challenge)
• Languages and Programming Models (e.g., OpenMP, MPI, PGAS)
• Government Initiatives and Groups (e.g., NITRD, grant policy, NSF HECURA)
• Future of HPC (e.g., pathways to the future, trends)

In addition, many other specialized topics—from fault tolerance to parallel I/O—have been scheduled. With 54 BoFs (selected from over 100 submissions) being held over the course of three days, there is sure to be a subject of interest for everyone. BoFs meet Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 18-19, at 12:15-1:15 p.m. and 5:30-7:00 p.m., and from 12:15-1:15 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20. Find a searchable database of this year’s BoFs at its Web site.