While SC is a business convention, it might also be called an annual international festival for high-performance computing researchers and engineers. Recently, it has become tradition for SC-attending organizations to travel to the event in the U.S., as a different U.S. city with a supercomputer center takes turn to act as host every November. In 1997, SC was held in San Jose, California, for six days (November 16 - 21). In addition to tutorial and technical sessions as seen at other international conferences, SC possesses its own unique feature: an exhibition of high-end machines, including supercomputers and parallel computers, attracting more than 5,000 visitors every day of the event.
Real World Computing Partnership (RWCP) participated in the SC by displaying a research exhibition, as in 1996. RWCP showed software environment on the PC cluster and demonstrated some applications. In 1996, RWCP had sent only representatives from the Parallel and Distributed System Software TRC Laboratory to the convention. At that time too, the PC cluster and its software environment were demonstrated. In 1997, other members from the Parallel Performance and Parallel Application Laboratories joined in, so that the scale of RWCP demonstration would be enhanced. A total of 30 RWCP representatives were delegated to SC'97, including the exhibition coordinators from Sumisho Electronics Co., Ltd., the video crew and supporters from outsourcing suppliers.
The advance group, including myself, arrived in San Jose on November 12 and began with installation the following day. The total amount of materials we took to the exhibition site was almost twice the previous year, as, for example, the number of PC cluster nodes increased by 64. Lessons we learned from previous participation really assisted us: we had improved the chassis of our PC cluster and the packing method of equipment, as well as modified our tooling. Consequently, RWCP finished unpacking and assembly work much more quickly than expected, and our PC cluster were up by 3 p.m. on November 13. Minor flaws and problems were then located and fixed, such as Ethernet left partially unconnected and Myrinet improperly connected. Finally, we successfully ran some application on our system during first-day installation.
Preparation for the exhibit continued until 5 p.m., November 17, when the exhibit was initiated. We "fine-tuned" the demonstration program: arranging desks, chairs, fixtures; installing machines; setting up panels and the network; adjusting lights; along with a myriad of other errands. Installation was finalized just before the start of our demonstration.
On the morning of November 15, the group moved the booth signboard to a higher position, so that visitors could more easily see and read the panels. The arrangement of exhibition items was also changed many times, in an attempt to make them more appreciable. During the installation, Mr. Ishikawa, Mr. Hori and Mr. Tezuka, functioned in a superman-like manner. There was, in fact, some concern among them that the leaders were over-exerting themselves.
The laboratory chiefs eagerly attended to visitors during the entire exhibition, which started right after a ribbon-cutting ceremony. All members of RWCP delegated worked diligently in order to acquaint visitors with our research results. Just to note, research results are not described in this review, as you can find the laboratory chiefs' reports elsewhere in this edition's newsletter. Nonetheless, as a brief comment, our demonstration was favorably evaluated. Though we prepared 200 sets of leaflets for the four-day exhibition, we had no copies remaining by day 2. One visitor was so impressed by our demonstration that he revisited our booth with a friend, whereupon he proceeded to explain the RWCP exhibition to the friend himself. Truly due to the efforts and diligence of the members delegated, the RWCP proved to be a great success.
As far as the convention on a whole, the only unfortunate situation RWCP members encountered was simply that the majority of our time needed to be devoted to our own exhibit, prohibiting us from observing the various other exhibits. Not with standing, SC'97 provided an enjoyable and most insightful atmosphere for business mingling and information exchange.