Reed's Ruminations: A Blog by Dan Reed

eScience: 21st Century Science

Computing shares many features with other scientific instruments, which allow us to probe further into the unknown. Whether it is deep field images from the Hubble telescope and insights into the origins of the universe, the high energy detectors of Fermilab and CERN and refinements to the Standard Model of subatomic particles, or large-scale genetic sequencers, insights into the limitations of the Central Dogma and an understanding of the deep biological basis of life and disease, theory and experiment march together, enabled and supported by one another.

Joe, Java, Espresso: Fueling Innovation

I’ve been in Seattle three times in the past month, for three different reasons: (a) the Microsoft Manycore Workshop, (b) a Computing Community Consortium council meeting at the University of Washington and (c) the Microsoft Research (MSR) Faculty Summit. Seattle is a great city and, well, it’s the birthplace of Starbucks. This led me to think about coffee and culture. The U.S. and the rest of the world have experienced a coffee revolution in the past decade. My spiritual journey to oneness with Juan Valdez is not atypical.

Petascale and Multicore Redux

N.B. Sorry for the absence, I’ve been on vacation, thinking about life and doing my best Jimmy Buffett imitation.

In mid-June, I participated in the DOE’s SOS11 workshop, held in Key West. This year’s workshop theme was “Challenges of Sustained Petascale Computation.” The workshop included updates on new systems and experiences from the national laboratories, along with vendor and academic perspectives on the challenges ahead.