GOVERNMENT
Review: International Supercomputing Conference '10
Despite the financial crisis and travel uncertainties due to the Icelandic volcano eruptions, 1998 system managers, researchers, developers, computational scientists and industry affiliates made it to Hamburg, to be a part of ISC’10. The growth of 19.6 percent over 2009 made ISC’10 the most powerful conference and exhibition in 25 years.
New Participation Record
Participants from 49 countries attended ISC’10. The largest number of attendees came from Germany, followed by the U.S., the UK and France. This year’s conference also experienced an increase in Russian and Chinese participation.
ISC’s proven strategy and marketing efforts helped shape a strong technical program coupled with a comprehensive exhibition, many networking opportunities and seven half-day tutorials which then contributed to the rise in attendee numbers.
The number of exhibitors also recorded a remarkable growth of 27 percent with 151 exhibitors compared to 119 in 2009.
Among the crowd were reputed journalists from the U.S., the UK, Germany, Benelux, Russia, Scandinavia, Korea and Africa, providing daily live coverage of the conference and exhibition. Many publications had also promoted ISC'10 prior to the event.
Conference
Continuing the flexible pricing and schedule, ISC created more value for attendees with a half-day tutorials session and many unique sessions on emerging new markets, energy, life sciences, exascale, cloud computing and networking. Some of the sessions attracted an overwhelming crowd, thus exceeding the seating capacity of the rooms.
Among the highlights of ISC’10 were the opening session, keynote presentations by Kirk Skaugen, an Intel vice president and by Prof. Dr. Horst Zuse, the son of Konrad Zuse.
This year, almost all the keynotes, the Hot Seat Sessions and the highlights of the TOP500 project were streamed live over the web, sharing valuable information with the global HPC community.
The 35th TOP500 list announced at the opening session unveiled China’s ambition to enter supercomputing’s top league with “Nebulae”. Developed by Dawning, it is currently the fastest system worldwide in theoretical peak performance. However, the Cray-built “Jaguar” located in the U.S. held on to the No. 1 spot on the list with a higher petaflops/s performance.
Attendance
The relaunch of tutorials and the focus on Konrad Zuse's contributions to HPC attracted higher attendance among researchers. Compared to previous years, affiliates from various vertical industries expressed keen interest in ISC'10.
Participants Sectors*
| Aeronautic/Aerospace | 2.97 % |
| Analyst/Consultant | 0.95 % |
| Automotive | 1.70 % |
| Cluster/Computer | 10.29 % |
| Data Storage | 1.06 % |
| Defense | 1.91 % |
| Gas & Oil | 2.12 % |
| Media | 3.29 % |
| Network | 1.59 % |
| Other Vertical Industries | 3.93 % |
| Research & HPC Centers | 20.78 % |
| Semiconductor | 3.50 % |
| Software | 3.92 % |
| Solution Provider | 2.86 % |
| University | 34.89 % |
| Weather/Climate | 3.39 % |
| Others | 0.85 % |
*Booth Pass excluded
Exhibition
With a personal best of 151 exhibitors, ISC’10 once again proved itself as a world-class HPC exhibition. As key players such as Intel, HP, Microsoft and Supermicro showed the largest presence, smaller companies providing hardware, software, storage and networking solutions also attracted many visitors. Besides, research laboratories from 19 countries also utilized ISC’10 to demonstrate their research achievements and scientific applications.
This year, ISC welcomed 41 first–time exhibitors, including 10 HPC startups and eight research centers from countries including Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Brazil, Japan and Singapore. This contributed to the net size of the exhibition floor to grow from 1,424 square meters in 2009 to 1.721 square meters, an increase of 21 percent in size.
The highlights of the ISC’10 exhibition were the 36 exhibitor forums and 10 start-up forums held on two separate days within the exhibition floor, thus giving visitors the flexibility to attend the sessions whilst browsing through the exhibition. The forums were strategically positioned in three different locations in the exhibition hall. Apart from increasing the visitor traffic, this also ensured that all booth locations received their share of visibility.
ISC’11 (June 19 – 23, 2011)
Still more than a year away, ISC’11 (June 19 – 23, 2011) is already enjoying tremendous success. All but one sponsor slots have been filled and 75 percent of the total available booth space has been sold.
Further Information: http://www.supercomp.de/isc11/Overview/Facts-Figures
Photographs: https://www.secure-registration.de/gallery/v/ISC2010/ISC10-Conference-Pictures/