Powers Unfiltered

The annual Supercomputing conference (SC06) is in Tampa, Florida next week.  Actually, it starts this weekend and runs for a ridiculous seven days, but Dan and I will be there Monday night through Thursday afternoon — which will be plenty.  SC is a “must attend” show in the high performance computing / grid computing / supercomputing / cluster computing / scalable distributed computing world (this industry needs lots of names for very, very similar concepts so that experts can argue about the subtle differences).

Like many events in this niche, SC suffers from a severe identity crisis that provides for a pretty amusing culture clash.  You can find booth babes and conference swag next to pony-tailed UNIX bigots next to high-powered corporate sales dudes next to uppity startups next to dazed computer science professors.  Nevertheless, the show is growing by leaps and bounds — this will only be my fourth one, but since SC03, the floorspace and attendance have increased dramatically.  SC05 was too big for the venue in Seattle, and SC06 will be bigger.

I will probably spend most of my time (when not in meetings with customers and partners) on the exhibit floor.  Dan and I will be in the HP booth a lot — their HPC and grid teams both like what we’re doing, and they’ve provided some space for us.  Much less hassle than a booth of our own!  Dan and I will also be looking for opportunities to execute the “insta-booth” maneuver we mastered (out of necessity) at the overflowing SC05 — so wherever the nearest Starbucks line is, watch for spontaneous Digipede demonstrations.

If you’re going to be there, let me know.