CHEMISTRY

The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) has opened a second session of the Windows HPC training workshop scheduled for April 2004 to meet additional demand. Seats in the second session are now available. The free, hands-on, two-day technical training workshop is open to members of qualified organizations interested in implementing high-performance computing on Windows-based clusters. The newly opened session of the workshop is scheduled for April 26-27, 2004, at CTC-Manhattan in New York City. The first session, that is now closed for registrations, will be held on April 28-29, 2004, also in Manhattan. Representatives from all industries and sectors, including corporations, universities, and government agencies, are invited to attend. Space is limited. Registration is required by April 15, 2004, and can be accomplished by submitting the form at http://www.tc.cornell.edu/services/edu/events/winHPC/. The workshop will focus on technical training, with discussions about installing clusters and writing parallel applications. Specific sessions will include overviews of Windows-based HPC, cluster design, parallel programming, benchmarking, and hardware and software considerations. Attendees will also have an opportunity to build a Windows-based cluster. The course format includes lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises. Participants will be introduced to a new scheduler and resource manager developed by CTC. Database-driven, it will schedule both clusters and desktops, and enable users to specify precisely which machines run HPC batch jobs, interactive jobs, and .NET applications. “CTC is helping universities and businesses implement their Windows and .NET clusters effectively,” said CTC Director Thomas Coleman. “We migrated our systems to the Windows platform and want to share ‘lessons learned’ from both a systems and tools perspective.” “This workshop is a rare combination of ‘hands-on’ and theory, especially in the field of HPC, where lectures are more common than practical inputs,” said Suresh Nagarowth, project leader for Infosys Technologies Limited, and a participant at a recent WinHPC workshop. “Creating a fully operative HPC environment for ourselves was just a part of the outcome of the workshop; the ultimate benefit was when it helped Infosys gain expertise to provide solutions in the field of HPC.” The workshop will be presented by CTC consultants, analysts, senior research associates, and systems programmers. For questions concerning registration, hotel, or travel, please contact Carol Christoffersen at 607.254.8692 or carolc@tc.cornell.edu. All other questions, including workshop content, may be directed to Susan Mehringer at 607.254.8777 or susan@tc.cornell.edu.