The biggest challenge in getting to the next level of supercomputer performance – Exascale – is the massive amounts of electricity these systems will consume…. and big energy usage means huge costs. The industry is well aware of this, of…

We’re a little less than two weeks away from the tip-off of the first ISC/HPCAC 2012 Student Cluster Competition. University teams representing the US, China, and host nation Germany will meet in an epic benchmark battle to prove which team can design and build the fastest homemade cluster. The only constraint is electricity – they get only 13 amps to work with. (For full details on the competition and rules, click your mouse here.)

Right now, the teams are preparing themselves both physically and mentally for the upcoming challenge. Hamburg will be a trial by fire; contestants will find out whether their hardware, software, and application tuning knowledge is enough to vanquish their competitors. The winning team will claim the Klusterkamph Kup and drink deeply from that highly coveted chalice of victory.

(Unfortunately there isn’t really a kup, or even a cup. Pity. Actually, there ought to be an Airbus Cup – they’re the major corporate sponsor of the event. Wonder if there’s some Airbus employee out there who could amble out to their metal fabrication plant and cobble us a trophy? Something big and gaudy… with winged victory angels and stuff… yeah, that’s the ticket.) (Place your virtual bet below…)

China is sending two teams to the ISC Student Cluster Competition (iSCC) this June in Hamburg. Tsinghua University and the National University of Defense Technology were survivors of a rigorous Hunger Games-like play-in competition; they had to beat out four other teams for the coveted Hamburg spots. Chinese server/services vendor Inspur is providing hardware and underwriting both teams.

(The competition was exactly like The Hunger Games if the hit book/movie characters had been forced to build their own clustered systems and achieve the highest scores on a set of HPC benchmarks. And if the losers weren’t killed – they just didn’t get to go to Hamburg. Other than that, the Chinese cluster competition was exactly like The Hunger Games; details here.)

Two American universities vie for cluster fame and glory in the inaugural ISC’12 Student Cluster Competition (iSCC) in Hamburg next month. This competition, sponsored by Airbus, the HPC Advisory Council and ISC, gives university teams the chance to design, build, and benchmark their clusters against four teams of peers. They’re limited only by a hard power cap of 13 amps and the requirement that the gear they use be commercially available. (For more on the competition in general, click your clicker here.)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe, Germany is the lone European entry in the ISC’12 Student Cluster Competition. As such, they’re carrying a huge weight on their solid Teutonic shoulders. KIT, as Team Germany, is charged with defending home-country student clustering honor vs. powerhouse teams from China and the U.S.

But KIT seems well equipped to meet the challenge. Founded in 1825, it’s one of Germany’s leading science, engineering, and technical universities. Mathematics and Natural Sciences, along with Engineering Sciences, are the main focus of 74% of their 22,552 student population. Their Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC) gives researchers access to several large clusters based on Intel, AMD, and POWER processors.

The university boasts a slate of alumni who have changed the world. Some of the most notable:

Now that China has settled on its two entrants to the ISC’12 Student Cluster Challenge (I’m dubbing it iSCC for short), it’s time to get a feel for the competition and take a look at the specific challenges facing the teams.

Airbus is the name sponsor of the iSCC this year and has played a vital role in getting this fledgling competition off the ground – so to speak. Hats off to them. (As a gesture of gratitude, I’ll be flying in an Airbus-manufactured plane to Hamburg this year. I really hope the seatback power works – it’s a long damned flight.)

We now have the two largest HPC organizations (ISC and SC) sponsoring opportunities for university teams to test themselves by building and benchmarking clusters of their own design against their peers.

I’ve been following the annual SC Student Cluster Competition (SCC) for a few years now. It’s a great program that pits teams of university undergrads against each other in the quest to design, build, and benchmark their own clustered systems. In the process they learn a lot about HPC, get a lot of exposure to the industry, and generally have a great time.

The profile of the SC event has risen to the level that the Europe-based ISC is getting into the act with their own Student Cluster Competition that will be featured at their Hamburg show next month.