BlueGene and BlueGrid prepare for the future

Heidelberg 23 jun 2001 At the Heidelberg supercomputer conference, we had the opportunity to talk to Surjit Chana, the new Vice President of the High-Performance Computing Server Group at IBM. His message? IBM will keep delivering on its long-term road map. The company will stay in touch with large customers, and participate in new technology developments like The Grid, adding a few things of its own, especially in chip development. A somewhat boring message? Yes it is, but one that certainly will be reassuring for its customers.

According to Chana the market is very competitive. IBM is competing head to head against other major computer vendors. IBM survives because it is strong in technology, "and we listen better to our customer than our competitors", Chana syas. IN high-performance computing for instance, IBM is teaming up research temas with large customers. This results in technology that is best of bread.

IBM is also keeping up with Windows and Linux developments.

The industry is radically changing. For new start-up supercomputer companies, the netry levels are higher than before. Radical changes in the industry. entry levels are higher.

Technology is changing very fast. Nevertheless, the large supercomputers are taking up more and more floor space, although IBM is trying to squeeze more computing power on a square meter.

The company is trying to anticipate the future, working on several new technologies, on its own and as part of broader communities.

Two of the computing models that are important for IBM are:

  • Grid computing
  • Blue gene
and, oc course, enabling fields, such as storage, where it has Pixie Dust.

IBM considers Grid computing a key idea. There is a lot of internal work in progress on The Grid. It is important to support Virtual Companies. IBM is supporting the DataGrid developments, lead by Cern, and yes, you may have guessed, there is a BlueGrid too.

IBM is actively participating in the Global Grid Forum: In the Amsterdam meeting a few months ago, they had the largest company participation.

"IBM does not go on hype," Chana explains. It can take a while before they really step in, but when they do, it is with customer tested high-quality technology and not preliminary announcements they cannot full fill.

IBM stil supports a wide variety of operating systems. Basically, because applications require this. Behind the scenes the different operating systems use common technology where-ever possible.

Applications are key for IBM's customers. Hence cooperation with Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) is very important. "We are not going to competete with with ISV's", says Chana, we send out a clear message to them about this, so we can really partner, especially with the large ISV's." There is an IBM organisation just focused on ISV's. The company has an accreditation procedure for ISV's with several levels, entry level to the best-of-the-business at the top. The best-of-business ones, about ten in each market segment, are the ones they recommend to their customers.

Ad Emmen

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