NEW ORLEANS, LA — Supercomputing 2014 (SC14), the 26th anniversary conference of high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, celebrated the contributions of researchers, from those just starting their careers to those whose contributions have made lasting impacts.

The conference drew 10,198 registered attendees who participated in a technical program spanning six days and visited a record-breaking 356 exhibitors from industry, academia and research organizations.

“High performance computing has never been more important to society,” said Trish Damkroger from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “From the medical field to the entertainment industry to science, there is almost no place in society where supercomputing has not had an impact.”

According to Damkroger, the SC14 Exhibition was also the largest to date in the history of the conference with more than 141,800 net square feet — which is the equivalence of roughly six football fields.

During the conference, New Orleans also became the hub for the world’s fastest computer network — SCinet (SC14’s custom network) — which featured 1.5 Terabits of bandwidth.  The network featured 84 miles of fiber deployed throughout the convention center and $18 million in loaned equipment.  It was all made possible by 125 volunteers representing 58 global organizations spanning academia, government and industry.

The Technical Program again offered the highest quality in original HPC research. Competition for acceptance into the program was intense with an acceptance rate of approximately 21 percent from over 394 submissions. These submissions represent the best of the best in a wide variety of research topics in HPC. 

Overall Stats on Tech Program Tracks:

• 84 Birds-of-a-Feathers
• 81 Papers
• 14 Panels
• 76 Posters   
• 23 ACM Student Research Posters                   
• 33 Tutorials
• 35 Workshops
• 12 Invited Speakers

For the first time ever, SC14 featured an opening “HPC Matters” plenary that was led by Dr. Eng Lim Goh, Senior Vice President and CTO at SGI, who discussed the vital nature of supercomputers across much of the world’s economic, cultural, scientific, and social accomplishments. Dr. Piyush Mehrotra, chief from NASA Supercomputing Division, also joined the plenary to provide the researcher perspective on the topic. Another first was that the Job Fair sold out — with 30 organizations represented.