Due to biological conditions and some unofficial surveys where a plurality of your esteemed HPC colleges replied “Nope” when asked about attending SC21 in person, we decided to hold a hybrid Beowulf Bash. Since we have absolutely no experience with how to organize such an event, we reached the obvious conclusion – we’ll just wing it and see what happens.

Here’s the plan: Starting at 9pm EPT2 we will organize an online event over Zoom, and then touch base with a small but cozy gathering of the Beowulf faithful who have found their way to SC21 in St Louis at around 10:15pm EPT (which is 9:15pm in St Louis). We are still working on the St Louis location and the all-important free libations.

The virtual portion of our event will feature three “lightning panels”3 on three popular games topics:

Composable4 Computing

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Will the next generation of HPC computing be built-to-order at run time? Dynamic infrastructure represents a new way provision just the right amount of bare-metal hardware for your application. This panel will discuss the concept of composable computing and how it can used in HPC.

RISC-V for HPC

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Open ISA RISC-V processors are beginning to arrive in many different vertical markets. What are the latest designs and roadmaps to this the new processor for HPC?

Benchmarking for HPC

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Since the beginning of HPC, benchmarks, like the Top500, have been historically important. This panel will discuss modern benchmarking strategies and resources in today’s changing HPC landscape.

In a final feat of impressive pre-planning, we have set up the following agenda:

November 15

9pm EPT

Online welcome and remarks from esteemed folks — including a spectacular announcement!

9:15-9:45pm

Lightning panels
(this is where they try and convince that you their panel is best)

9:45-10:15pm

Panel breakout sessions
(this is where you choose which panel is actually the most interesting and get to weigh in with your own opinions)

10:15-10:25pm

Regroup and cut away to live portion of Bash

10:25pm

Wrap up and closing
(extra hang-out time for the die-hards)

You can attend virtually, or live, but doing both at the same time will cause those screeching feedback loops we’ve all been privy to in this age of Zoom meetings.

And now the big question: How does all this tie into the PID Game thing? Well, it really doesn’t. Each year we rip off a popular meme so that you will read this invitation. And, we’ve all experienced those stubborn processes that can’t be stopped. In which case, we could all use someone with a triangle mask 5 standing over them. So, it kind of fits.

Thanks for playing.

Beo Game Sponsors:

Traditional Snarky Footnotes:

[1] A PID or process ID is a unique number given to a contestant program that wants to play in the computing game. For instance:
[2]  We decided to use Eastern Prevailing Time (EPT) because we never know if it is EDT or EST or some other inane time system that has been designed to aggravate and confuse the general population.
[3] We’ve all heard of lightning talks. So why not lightning panels?
[4] Not to be confused with “compostable computing” as initially suggested by one of the organizers. He was eliminated in Red Light Green Light.
[5] If you don’t know what a Squid Game triangle mask is, perhaps you should spend less time trying to make vapid TikTok videos.