HPC Joins the Dummy Revolution?
We've been trying to figure out exactly what the attraction is. What is it that causes someone to be drawn to a book that explicitly states that it's for dummies? Is it the yellow and black motif? Maybe because 'dummy' rhymes with 'yummy'? What exactly causes someone to reach for a book entitled 'X for Dummies'?
Is it that he/she is relieved that someone may have taken a complicated topic and have reduced to its most simplest representation? Or maybe the subject is so intimidating that one equates their level of understanding to that of a dummy?
So what are the 'For Dummies' book series describing? The presentation of complicated material to the uninitiated, those who are not familiar with the subject matter. Well there are others ways to present complicated material than to pigeon hole the demographic to whom the book is marketed. For example, 'An Introduction to', 'The Basic Principles of', 'The Fundamentals of', that would be okay. But the success of the book series is the rather tongue-in-cheek name, a silly character to take the edge off the subject matter, and recognizable look-and-feel and organization of the book that works.
The For Dummies series began in 1991 with the DOS for Dummies book. The series initially focused on software and techie topics. John Wiley & Sons acquired Hungry Minds/IDG Books in early 2001 while Cameron and I were writing our 5th book, Linux Rapid Application Development for IDG Books, (not a Dummies book by the way). This series is now popular all over the world with over 1400 titles about any subject (some complicated and some not) and over 150 million books in print. The fact that so many people all around the world flock to such titles that reference the reader as a dummy is interesting in itself.
So present company included, there is a Dummy eBook that I have to recommend, High Performance Computing For Dummies online. The book was written by Douglas Eadline, the senior HPC Editor for Linux Magazine and sponsored by a Sun and AMD collaboration. The book starts off with what is HPC of course and who should be using it (not just rocket scientists). It walks you through the 'cluster' concept, what constitutes a 'cluster', choosing the hardware and software, putting the cluster together, and introduces you to the HPC and Open Source communities. The book can be downloaded here.
If you haven't already done so, download the book and join the Dummy Revolution.
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September 13, 2010
The goal of the Third International Workshop on Parallel Programming Models and Systems Software for High-End Computing is to bring together researchers and practitioners in parallel programming models and systems software for high-end computing architectures. Please join us in a discussion of new ideas, experiences, and the latest trends in these areas at the workshop.
Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques
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September 11-15, 2010
The International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques (PACT) is a premier international forum for the presentation of research results in parallel computing. As a multi-disciplinary conference that brings together researchers from the hardware and software areas, PACT brings together researchers and practitioners in parallel systems to present ground-breaking research related to parallel systems ranging across instruction-level parallelism, thread-level parallelism, multiprocessor parallelism and large scale systems.
IDF2010
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September 13-15, 2010
The Intel Developer Forum 2010 is your opportunity to collaborate with thousands of key industry players. Hear from more than 150 leading technology companies from around the world. Ask questions, get answers, experience live demonstrations, and more. Between the highly informative Keynotes, Technology and Industry Insights, Intel Fellows Live & Uncensored and Technical Sessions (including lectures, interactive panels, hands-on labs and Hot Topic Q&As), this year's IDF has everything you need to stay on top of the latest technology trends.
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February 12-16, 2011
The Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming is a forum for leading work on all aspects of parallel programming, including foundational and theoretical aspects, techniques, tools, and practical experiences. In the context of the symposium, "parallel programming" encompasses work on concurrent and parallel systems (multicore, multithreaded, heterogeneous, clustered systems, distributed systems, and large scale machines). Given the rise of parallel architectures into the consumer market (desktops, laptops, and mobile devices), PPoPP is particularly interested in work that addresses new parallel workloads, techniques and tools that attempt to improve the productivity of parallel programming, and work towards improved synergy with such emerging architectures.


