Topics including (but not limited to)....

  • Rising power needs

  •  

    Advanced cooling

  •  

     

     

     

       Latest & Greatest New Tech

  • How compute is used

  • Efficient computing & explaining stuff

  •   We argue about it all!

Radio Free HPC (RFHPC) started in 2012 and, after a short break of 193 months, has returned to the airwaves (cyber waves?) with co-hosts Dan Olds, Henry Newman, and Shahin Khan.

The podcast covers a wide range of topics but is particularly focused on data center technology and challenges. These include high performance computing, power and cooling, new technology, and, really, whatever the hell they want to talk about.

 

Quick FAQ


"Why are you just covering HPC? There's this new thing called AI, have you heard of it?"

Yeah, we've heard of it and we do cover it. To us, HPC is a broad term used to refer to a very broad group of apps/workloads that have common characteristics.

  1. They are computationally intense
  2. Time to solution and quality of solution are critical
  3. The output is important enough to justify investment in high-end clusters and associated hardware/software

AI meets all of the criteria above just like bioscience, aerospace, weather prediction, and several other domains. In fact, AI is or will soon be folded into the workflows of nearly every 'traditional' HPC and enterprise application over time. This is going to put a lot of pressure on data centers and we'll be talking about how to deal with it.

 

"Was the old version of Radio Free HPC popular? I've never heard of it..."

Yes, it rose from obscurity to being mildly popular and, at times, entertaining. At our peak, we had as many as 16 sustained listeners and as many as 19 theoretical max listeners.

 

"I listened to the old show a couple of times and liked the arguing. Will there be more of that in this reboot?"

Yes, in fact we expect as much as 29% more arguing and a significant increase in the number of personal insults per episode.

 

"How often will this thing come out and how do I find out about it?"

We used to try to do weekly shows but failed due to other commitments, travel, etc. And there were just weeks when nothing important happened. But to answer your question, could be every couple of weeks, could be once a month, or we could record a marathon 8-10 hour single episode. Depends on what's happening and our mood.

We're getting together our RSS feeds and such but in the short term we'll be publicizing the episodes through the RFHPC X account and our individual social media accounts.

 

Ok, enough questions. If you want to learn more about the show and hosts, check out the "About" page.

Here are our most recent episodes along with the 345 or so previous editions, enjoy!

 

 

 

Latest Episode

  • Episode 275: Tribute to Rich Brueckner, 1962-2020

    By admin | May 27, 2020 |

    by Dan Olds

    This is a tough blog to write for this RadioFreeHPC episode.

    This is the episode where we say a final goodbye to our co-founder and comrade in arms Rich Brueckner. Rich passed away suddenly last week leaving us shocked and shaken. The whole genesis of RFHPC came out of Rich and I sitting around the press area of GTC 2012 and talking about what we could do to bring a little more life into the HPC community. We batted around several ideas but finally came up with the idea of a long-form podcast that would tackle every topic in tech – as long as it was big and fast. With that idea in mind, we recruited Henry Newman, started production, and the rest is history as they say.

    We added Shahin Khan to our host lineup to add more technical heft and to give us increased flexibility to cover our travel schedules. But after nearly six years, Rich’s ultra-busy schedule didn’t allow him to continue working with us on RFHPC, but he remained a friend of the show, promoting it on his InsideHPC site. Our latest addition to our roster is rookie host Jessie Lanum, an outstanding university student who has added enthusiasm and a youthful viewpoint to our show.

    In this episode, we pay tribute to Rich, sharing our own thoughts about him - plus the thoughts and memories from HPC community members. There are several funny stories in here, along with heartfelt  acknowledgement of the vital role Rich played in our HPC community. So please give a listen and share your thoughts and stories.

    I’d also like to call your attention to the following links. These are shows that either feature Rich prominently or have us talking about Rich in depth. They really show his sense of humor, how highly we regarded him and his commitment to HPC. Take a look or listen, I think you’ll enjoy them….

    RF-HPC Episode 18-1: This is our first holiday episode. In this show, Henry and I discuss the perfect Christmas gifts for Rich and make fun of his Apple addiction. Check out the videos on these picks, they’re funnier than the audio version.

    RF-HPC Episode 18-2:  In this one, Rich and Dan talk about the perfect Christmas gifts for Henry. The picture of Henry as a Tibetan monk is one of Rich’s all-time favorites.

    RF-HPC Episode 18-3:  To finish out this series, Rich and Henry talk about what they’d give me for Christmas.

    Rich Brueckner

    RF-HPC Episode 218:  A Hard Look at Santa’s Big Data Challenges

    RF-HPC Episode 214:  Rich & Dan report on the CHPC South African conference, plus the CHPC cluster competition too!

     

     

    Thank you for all the memories and all of your hard work, Rich. You did good for a lot of people.

    Join us!

    * Download the MP3 

Recent Episodes

  • Episode 346: SC22 Preview

    November 7, 2022

    We’ve got the whole crew here as we look at the upcoming SC22 event. How many will be there? What will be happening? We answer only some of these questions.…

  • Episode 345: Dow Gets Cloudy

    November 7, 2022

    Dan rides alone on this one as he interviews the HPC folks from Dow who are behind their move to cloud bursting. Interesting and informative. *Download the MP3 * Follow…

  • Episode 344: Finally back! And with a new co-host!

    August 22, 2022

    We introduce new co-host Ben Carr and talk some NIST and Intel trevails. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe…

  • Episode 343: It’s GTC, Baby

    March 29, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan and Jessi talk GTC along with special guest Todd Weiss. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3

  • Episode 342: Jazz, Melting Diamonds, and Schrödinger’s Cat

    March 28, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew round up the most intriguing batch of recent HPC topics including Graphcore, HPC efforts to better understand melting diamonds and Jazz, as well…

  • Episode 341: Ponte Vecchio

    March 21, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talk Intel’s Ponte Vecchio. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire. *Download the MP3 * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe on Spotify  * Subscribe on…

  • Episode 340: HPC with Trish Damkroger and Brent Gorda

    March 14, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, Dan and Jessi are joined by Trish Damkroger and Brent Gorda to talk HPC topics, thoughts, and intriguing trends. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire.…

  • Episode 339: 12 Cores Per Soul

    February 14, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew discusses Intel’s investment into RISC-V, the 2022 Winter Classic student cluster competition, and quantum computing in Canada. RadioFreeHPC is distributed in partnership with HPCwire.…

  • Episode 338: NVIDIA Slinks Away, Meta Bulks Up, And We Zap Bugs

    February 1, 2022

    In this episode of RadioFreeHPC, the crew talks Meta’s new AI supercomputer, NVIDIA abandoning ARM, and our latest competition winners. RadioFreeHPC is brought to you by the Surfs Up Hippie and…