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 252: Preview of Supercomputing ’19 – Denver

    By admin | November 6, 2019 |

    What's All Happening at SC19 in Denver?

    Supercomputing '19 is coming to Denver this year and who better than Rich Brueckner to give us a sneak peak. Super excited to have Rich and his signature laugh on this show again.

    In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC(opens in new tab) team reviews the full list of ancillary events at SC19(opens in new tab), and Henry gives us one more reason to stay offline. Oh, and a few predictions.

    There's a lot that happens before the exhibit floor on Monday night. Our old pal Rich Brueckner from insideHPC joins us to give us the full rundown.

    SC19 Ancillary Events:

    HP-CAST(opens in new tab). HPE's user group meeting starts things off on Friday, Nov. 14 - Saturday, Nov. 15. This two-day event will be the first HP-CAST meeting with Cray in the fold, so we're looking to some great insight as to how the two companies will merge their product line, partner network, and HPC ecosystems.

    Intel HPC Developer Conference(opens in new tab). In this two-day event on Sunday, Nov. 15 - Monday, Nov. 16, Intel offers a robust program to connect the HPC community with Intel developers, Intel engineers, and industry experts. "We’ll help you tackle your HPC challenges by offering a wide range of learning opportunities at SC19.

    HPC Day with The Next Platform(opens in new tab). Making its debut at SC19, HPC Day on Sunday, Nov. 17 is an in-depth day with thought leaders at the front of high performance innovation. In a series of on-stage interviews (no slides) with industry thought leaders, the Next Platform what’s relevant to the future of supercomputing.

    Arm HPC User Group(opens in new tab). Now in its fifth year, the all-day event takes place on Monday, Nov. 18 at the Curtis Hotel in Denver. "This is not a Marketing event -- we have a full day agenda of strategic partners and end-users from all regions of the world sharing their experiences, best practices, plans, ecosystem advances, and results on Arm-based platforms for HPC applications."

    Dell EMC HPC Community(opens in new tab). Kicking off at 8:00am on Monday, Nov. 18, the Dell HPC Community meeting will feature keynote presentations by HPC experts and a networking event to discuss best practices in the use of Dell EMC HPC Systems. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to receive updates on HPC strategy, product and solution plans from Dell executives and technical staff and technology partners.

    DDN User Group(opens in new tab). Starting at 1:00pm on Monday, Nov. 18, the DDN User Group brings together the best and brightest scientists, researchers and technologists to share and learn how leading global HPC organizations are executing cutting-edge initiatives that are transforming the world. The goal of the event is to gather the community during SC to discover how HPC organizations are assessing and leveraging technology to raise the bar on HPC innovations and best practices.

    NVIDIA 2019 Special Address. You’re invited to attend the NVIDIA 2019 Special Address from founder and CEO, Jensen Huang. The event takes place 3:00pm - 5:00pm on Monday, November 18. Last year's address featured spectacular cosmology visualizations computed on NVIDIA GPUs. What will be revealed about accelerated computing on stage this year? Don't miss it. You must RSVP to attend.

    Beowulf Bash at SC19(opens in new tab). After the SC19 show floor closes on Monday night, the Beowulf Bash is the party not to miss. "This year, we thought it would be great to do Stranger Things theme party. There will be 80s-style entertainment, games, the best 80s tribute band. Food, beverages, entertainment, and Eggo Waffles provided.

    Hyperion Research HPC Market Briefing Breakfast(opens in new tab). Starting at 7:00am on Tuesday, Nov. 19, this informative briefing from Hyperion Research is always standing-room only. Get there early!

    Nimbix Lounge Party(opens in new tab). On Tuesday night, Nimbix will host its 7th Annual Lounge Party in Denver. "We invite you along with our co-host Intel to enjoy an evening of entertainment, cocktails and delicious food at White Pie."

    Lunch and Learn - Getting a Handle on HPC Cloud Costs(opens in new tab). Starting at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 20, this lunch event will share the many advantages of using a cloud spend management platform and how to avoid expensive mistakes when migrating HPC workloads to the cloud. This event is recommended for anyone considering the use of cloud for HPC workloads and will be particularly useful for attendees running Slurm, Univa Grid Engine, or open-source Grid Engine. The session will focus on real-world deployment examples and provide technical demonstrations that show how hybrid clouds can be deployed efficiently and cost-effectively across multiple cloud providers.

    Check out the insideHPC Events Calendar and send an email to news@insideHPC.com if your organization sponsoring a function at SC19 and you'd like it listed.

    Why No One Should Ever Be Online.  Ever.

    Henry’s tells us even internet "domain name registrars" are not immune, describing breaches at  NetworkSolutions.com, Register.com and Web.com which eventually led them to ask customers to reset their passwords. They apparently discovered the hack in August 2019 in which customer account information was accessed. [Yes, we're still massaging the title of this segment but looks like the above is gelling, albeit w/o a shorter tweet-friendly version.]

    Listen in to hear the full conversation

    * 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…