Issue 136 June/July 2014 CONTENTS
Laboratory Informatics Paperless Lab Academy
Fields of data
Sophia Ktori describes how keeping track of agricultural data provides special challenges for informatics systems
High-Performance Computing HPC News
Robert Roe, reporting from PRACEdays14 in Barcelona, says high-performance computing is increasingly relevant for smaller organisations
Exascale challenges
Te next major milestone for HPC is a system capable of executing a exaflop, says John Barr
Keeping cool
Tom Wilkie discovers how liquid cooling and expertise from embedded systems are pointing the way towards a green future
Looking forward to Leipzig
A round-up of exhibitors who will be displaying their wares at ISC'14, which will be held in the German city of Leipzig from 22 to 24 June
Applications A close-up on engineering data
Robert Roe finds out how data-visualisation from engineering simulations can cut time and increase innovation
Multiphysics in Munich
More than 50 simulation technology experts are expected at the seventh European Altair Technology Conference, from 24 to 26 June
Resources Suppliers' directory
EDITORIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM Editor Beth Harlen
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Production editor Tim Gillett Specialist reporters Robert Roe, Siân Harris, Sophia Ktori, John Barr, John Trigg Circulation/readership enquiries Pete Vine
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www.scientific-computing.com l @scwmagazine 44 40 36 30 24 4
Tom Wilkie stresses the importance of managing change and of the limits to data sharing in a paperless laboratory, as part of a report from Paperless Lab Academy, held recently in Amsterdam
8 16
Cooling a hot topic for summer season
It's a busy time for European supercomputing. In May, the PRACEdays14 conference (reported on page 16) set out some of the sterling science made possible by the international cooperation on access to Tier 0 compute resources. Te meeting also heard about progress on the industrial side, with the development of public-private partnerships between the European Commission and the European Technology Platform for HPC. Te call is already out for bids to become European Centres of Excellence in HPC. Tere has also been a significant development in France, as Atos has acquired Bull (page 18). Leipzig will again be the focus of attention as
people gather for ISC’14 – we preview some of the exhibits on page 36. Tere will be no prizes for guessing that ‘hot’ topics in Leipzig will be cooling technologies and energy efficiency more widely. Te issue of reliability is also rising up the
agenda. As John Barr notes on page 24: ‘Exascale systems will use so many components that it is unlikely that the whole system will ever be operating normally. Te hardware, system soſtware and applications must cope with both degraded and failed components.’ But processors are more reliable components than disk drives, so designing new ways of ensuring that data storage is resilient is vital in the age of big data. Computing for science and engineering is
a topic that stretches much further than high- performance computing, so this issue also deals with the move to the paperless laboratory (page 4) and to the application of informatics in agriculture (page 8). On page 40, Robert Roe looks at more sophisticated techniques for visualising data. Te full breadth and the future of scientific
computing will be discussed in our next issue, which celebrates 20 years of Scientific Computing World. Do not miss this special issue in which invited experts from around the world will look to the future across all the fields of scientific computing in a series of special feature articles.
Tom Wilkie Editor-in-chief 48
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JUNE/JULY 2014 3
Cover: Alex Mit/RAStudio/In Green/Shutterstock
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