SA team wins international supercomputing conference

If you want to know more about the actual programme, fire away. We start the next round in July to defend the title in 2020.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Not so sure about the Youtube thing....

BUT it would be nice to know the specs and design (if its possible to share that).... be nice to see what you can do with R6m...
Click to expand...
I'll find out what we can share. I'm pretty sure it's on the ISC-HPC website and probably in HPCwire articles. Let's just say the actual cost price of a top-end VVVVVV expensive Intel CPU is closer to a Nando's family meal than you think ... Like jaw-dropping without markup.

We get some interesting prices.

Things used in previous iterations of the competition by teams include:

Nvme drives
V100's
Infiniband interconnect
Etc.
 
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brattex said:
I'll find out what we can share. I'm pretty sure it's on the ISC-HPC website and probably in HPCwire articles. Let's just say the actual cost price of a top-end VVVVVV expensive Intel CPU is closer to a Nando's family meal than you think ... Like jaw-dropping without markup.

We get some interesting prices.

Things used in previous iterations of the competition by teams include:

Nvme drives
V100's
Infiniband interconnect
Etc.
Click to expand...

Trust me I know..... list price is one thing, large enterprise orders get a VERY different price point....

Had a quick squizz on both those sites... if it is there its pretty well hidden :)
 
@brattex - I’ve always wondered what is actually done in these competitions. The hardware is provided, right? So is the software? So is this just an exercise in system administration, configuration and machine assembly?
 
cguy said:
@brattex - I’ve always wondered what is actually done in these competitions. The hardware is provided, right? So is the software? So is this just an exercise in system administration, configuration and machine assembly?
Click to expand...
There are three rounds.
The first two is for the SA Team selection for Germany final.

Round one:
One week of half day lectures:
Intro to Linux
Intro to HPC and parallel computing concepts
Computer hardware
HPC software
HPC system admin
Etc.
Then hands-on practicals
The final design project.

Top ten go to final round in December.

Round two:
Physical design delivered. Kids set it up and run challenges.

Final team of eight selected.
They get some additional (very specialised) training.

Germany:
New final system shipped. Kids rock up. We win.

Emphasis here is that every stage the kids design their own systems from hardware to software implementation to form factor etc. We give them free reign. As long as they can do the challenges. We interrogate their design decisions which is also part of the evaluation

Some guys come with many small cores.
Some don't even use their budget on a network switch.
Etc.
 
I likes that final line....

Should just add it to all your future itineraries for this comp :p
 
ToxicBunny said:
I likes that final line....

Should just add it to all your future itineraries for this comp :p
Click to expand...
Funny that. It's become a case of "when we win" in general water cooler talk. We always have to check ourselves. We aren't arrogant about it .. just a habit now. And TBH our competition is structured at outreach, not to win. Winning is just a nice result. But now we are expected to win ... #nopressure
 
brattex said:
"They should put this stuff on youtube instead of makeup tutorials"

They = ?
This stuff = ?
Makeup tutorials = ?
Click to expand...

They = Promoters of this event.
This Stuff = Kids excelling at technology and no, not unboxing videos of the latest iPhone.
Makup tutorials = The crap kids are watching these days.
 
brattex said:
Funny that. It's become a case of "when we win" in general water cooler talk. We always have to check ourselves. We aren't arrogant about it .. just a habit now. And TBH our competition is structured at outreach, not to win. Winning is just a nice result. But now we are expected to win ... #nopressure
Click to expand...

I can imagine on that front...

And as long as you keep it as an outreach program rather than a win program I think you will have a good chance of always doing well tbh...
 
brattex said:
There are three rounds.
The first two is for the SA Team selection for Germany final.

Round one:
One week of half day lectures:
Intro to Linux
Intro to HPC and parallel computing concepts
Computer hardware
HPC software
HPC system admin
Etc.
Then hands-on practicals
The final design project.

Top ten go to final round in December.

Round two:
Physical design delivered. Kids set it up and run challenges.

Final team of eight selected.
They get some additional (very specialised) training.

Germany:
New final system shipped. Kids rock up. We win.

Emphasis here is that every stage the kids design their own systems from hardware to software implementation to form factor etc. We give them free reign. As long as they can do the challenges. We interrogate their design decisions which is also part of the evaluation

Some guys come with many small cores.
Some don't even use their budget on a network switch.
Etc.
Click to expand...

Ok, so the goal is to maximize perf for selected benchmarks given a fixed budget. So, they can choose any hardware or software as long as it fits in the budget. Correct?

Do they actually assemble the hardware themselves? (Hook up the cables, install the GPUs, configure the switches, install the OS, drivers, etc.) Or do they just spec out the design and someone else puts it together?

Also, what is meant by designing their software implementation? Do they actually write any software? Or just choose which versions of drivers and libraries to use?
 
cguy said:
Ok, so the goal is to maximize perf for selected benchmarks given a fixed budget. So, they can choose any hardware or software as long as it fits in the budget. Correct?

Do they actually assemble the hardware themselves? (Hook up the cables, install the GPUs, configure the switches, install the OS, drivers, etc.) Or do they just spec out the design and someone else puts it together?

Also, what is meant by designing their software implementation? Do they actually write any software? Or just choose which versions of drivers and libraries to use?
Click to expand...

Given the short time frame, I would assume there is very little coding involved, and its mostly an implementation thing.... but I could be wrong.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Given the short time frame, I would assume there is very little coding involved, and its mostly an implementation thing.... but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

The CSIR page says that they do a bunch of work up front, the hardware is apparently “submitted to the CHOC’s partners for manufacturing “, for example. I agree that a few days would not be enough to write any useful software, unless this is also something done in advance.

There is a lot of loose terminology, like “design”, “build”, “implement”, “construct”, “optimize”, but nothing which really says what they actually do.
 
cguy said:
The CSIR page says that they do a bunch of work up front, the hardware is apparently “submitted to the CHOC’s partners for manufacturing “, for example.

There is a lot of loose terminology, like “design”, “build”, “implement”, “construct”, “optimize”, but nothing which really says what they actually do.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing a lot of "design" and all that one the hardware platform in terms of which ocmponents and how to interlink them...

And then a bit of optimising the code on the day maybe.... and possibly building the cluster itself.
 
Proud of you folks!

We still have a few clever buggers left in the People's Republic of SA (I include myself here of course :))!
 
Ah
quovadis said:
They = Promoters of this event.
This Stuff = Kids excelling at technology and no, not unboxing videos of the latest iPhone.
Makup tutorials = The crap kids are watching these days.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I thought you might be saying we should put info videos online instead of making up tutorials for the cluster kids :) my context was a little different to yours
 
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