SC2024: A Guide to Get the Most from the Show 

The supercomputing world — or shall we call it the HPC and AI world — will convene in Atlanta this week to attend the Supercomputing 24 show.

SC24 is a celebration of scientific computing and high-performance hardware. The cream of hardware and cloud companies — Nvidia, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle – are all there.

The show features technical presentations, talks, booths and posters that display and discuss the latest hardware and breakthrough scientific projects.

But the sheer number of events, talks and exhibit floor booths can be overwhelming and exhausting. Attendees may find it difficult to navigate and differentiate between the numerous sessions.

With years of experience attending the show, HPCwire can provide some tips to get the most out of the show. For starters, the Georgia World Congress Center (not the Atlanta Convention Center) is hosting SC24.

First things first

Don’t forget your morning coffee; you’ll need it. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) booth (#1031) had some of the best coffee on the show floor at SC23, and lines formed to sip the gourmet coffee. We’re not sure if they’ll do the same this year, but go early if you need a fix!

Also, locate where lunch is served, and try to get there early to avoid lines.

The opening gala reception is on Nov. 18 where you’ll be able to enjoy a drink and roam the floor. Companies are hosting private parties on the sidelines throughout the show, and it helps to have connections to get invites. Also, don’t forget the community Beowulf Bash party right after the opening gala (show badge needed for entry).

Some attendees prioritize freebie hunting on the exhibition floor. If that’s your thing, bring a bag and do your shopping during the opening gala reception or early the next day. Freebies run out of stock, or exhibitors run out of energy.

BoF is your BFF

The show has many presentations with the “BoF” moniker, and new attendees may not know what it means. BoF refers to Birds of a Feather, and they are the most valuable technical talks with panelists and presenters going deep into technologies, products or concepts.

There are many BoF sessions about benchmarking, AI, cooling, I/O, storage, chips, quantum computing, C++ standards, and much more. You can’t attend every session, and your favorite ones may overlap, so make sure you have a schedule for the day. You can catch up on missed sessions via online replays.

The SC24 schedule also lists “panels,” where experts gather to talk about HPC, AI and supercomputing trends. These sessions are the best place to get insights from the smartest people in the industry. There may be lines to attend some sessions.

Keynote

The show comes to a standstill for the keynote, where speaker Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will cover how supercomputing has helped the space agency achieve its goals. Among other things, she will also discuss life at the intersection of AI and HPC, which will be a big topic at the show.

The keynote is on Nov. 19 at 8:30 AM.

The winners of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Gordon Bell prize will also be announced at SC24.

Exhibits

The exhibits open up on Nov. 19 and run through the 21st. First, a plug: visit HPCwire’s booth #3041.

You will walk a lot, so make sure you wear sneakers and store water and snacks in your backpack. The exhibitors this year include Nvidia, which was almost invisible last year as its partners did its bidding. We hope they show off some of those cool Blackwell servers that will hit shelves next year.

If Nvidia servers are around, cooling providers won’t be far behind. AI has increased the demand for cooling technologies in data centers, with Nvidia switching to liquid cooling in Blackwell.

Dell Technologies has the largest floor presence of all vendors, and the booths of HPE and Supermicro are close to each other. AMD and Intel also have booths.

Amazon’s booth typically has small sub-booths where they discuss HPC technologies that include quantum, storage and more. Google, Microsoft and Oracle are also on the exhibit floor.

Major university and government labs from Europe and the U.S. are usually present, discussing the work done on their supercomputers. NASA, for example, was present last year, talking about their research and technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy has a booth discussing their scientific research and achievements via supercomputers.

Many U.S. universities have booths where you can sit and absorb the young academic energy. These scientists know tech and are bursting with fresh ideas, and they are excited to talk about their work. Last year, I talked to numerous program managers who helped scientists connect to the right supercomputing hardware.

The Forschungszentrum Jülich, which houses Europe’s first exascale supercomputer called Jupiter, usually has a booth talking about its servers and research. The Europeans are building their own network of HPC systems and are experimenting with running quantum computing and AI accelerator experiments.

If you look deep, you could find gems. The Open Standards Pavilion (booth 1815) will also host CXL, whose future is at a crossroads.

Poster confusion

You may also see “posters” as an event on the schedule, which could be confused with technical sessions. These are actually student posters hanging on a board, and the students are only available to talk about their projects during a reception from 5:15 PM to 7:00 PM EST in room B302 to B305 on Nov. 19.

Many posters are also on the exhibit floor, and there are other sessions where Doctoral students present their research.

Odd and ends

At ISC in May, Microsoft blamed the media for spreading wild rumors about “Stargate,” a rumored $100 billion supercomputer with millions of GPUs. Eviden blamed the media for spreading rumors about its struggles “because some journalists need…to invent some stories.”

The mainstream media will be at the show in force thanks to Nvidia. If you are an exhibitor, check credentials before talking.

At HPCwire, we are stewards of good journalism that is insightful, technical, and accurate. Continue tuning into our website for the latest news.

The final footnote: if you see an attendee in a bunny suit prowling the floor, that is the legendary HPC_Guru on X. We don’t know the person behind the suit and won’t guess who it is. But we are big fans, and we tip our hat for the effort put in by the alien entity to spread HPC awareness.

This article first appeared on sister site HPCwire.