World's Largest Gathering of Linux-Itanium Experts at Gelato Meeting

Released on = June 23, 2005, 1:54 pm

Press Release Author = Nan Holda

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = Over 150 scientists, developers, and engineers convened from
all around the globe for the May 2005 meeting of the Gelato Federation
(http://www.gelato.org), an international organization dedicated to advancing Linux
on the Intel® Itanium® processor.

Press Release Body = CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (June 23, 2005)—Over 150 scientists,
developers, and engineers convened from all around the globe for the May 2005
meeting of the Gelato Federation (http://www.gelato.org), an international
organization dedicated to advancing Linux on the Intel® Itanium® processor. This was
the largest gathering of Linux-Itanium professionals that the world has seen to
date, with delegates from more than 30 Gelato member institutions and significant
representation from Gelato sponsors HP, SGI, and Intel. The event was hosted by
Gelato founding sponsor, HP, at its Palo Alto and Cupertino campuses May 23-25.

"Our May meeting was the best attended and had the strongest technical program to
date," stated Mark K. Smith, Gelato managing director. "It was a historic meeting
bringing together Gelato members and our sponsors, HP, Intel, and SGI, to discuss
ways to work together to expand the Linux-Itanium platform."

"We were pleased to host this meeting and delighted at the turnout by so many people
from Gelato Federation organizations around the world," said Dick Lampman, senior
vice president of research, HP, and director, HP Labs. "HP looks forward to
continuing its work with Gelato members to create new software solutions for Linux
on Itanium."

A major goal of the Gelato Federation is education, an area in which the May 2005
meeting excelled. Focused on understanding Itanium-based systems to maximize
performance, the event delivered an exceptional speaker line-up and technical
program with nearly three dozen presentations. Some of the favorites included:
performance profiling, NUMA scalability issues and locking techniques, optimizing
scientific libraries for Itanium, NASA applications on the SGI® Altix®, and Itanium
2 processor-related research at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research. Attendees also learned more about the next-generation dual-core Intel
Itanium processor, codenamed 'Montecito,' through a presentation and a hands-on
demonstration where attendees were able to run their own software.

"The Gelato Federation is made up of people and organizations that are passionate
about Itanium and the advancement of the architecture," said Mark Davis, senior
principal engineer at Intel. "Intel is excited about the work that this group is
doing to bolster Linux development on Itanium and making Itanium the leading
platform for high-performance computing applications."

In addition to presenting, Gelato members—some of the world's top supercomputing
centers, national labs, research centers, and universities—were able to highlight
their current Linux-Itanium research during a poster session. Three dozen member
institutions presented over 100 projects, which denoted a wide range of activities,
including: kernel work from the University of New South Wales and the University of
Waterloo; grid projects from the Universidade Federal de Campina Grande and Zhejiang
University; compiler work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the
Russian Academy of Sciences; and diverse scientific applications from the Georgia
Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo.

Presentations and posters from the meeting can be found at
http://www.gelato.org/community/events.php#MAY2005.

Integral to the event was the open sharing of information and experiences, which
spurred the beginning of several new projects and collaborative relationships. In
attendance were many key members of the Linux-Itanium community, who profited from
the vast knowledge pool and face-to-face interactions. Top Linux kernel and OS
developers; Linux-Itanium application software developers and users; and Itanium
compiler engineers, including a majority of Intel's team, were all present. Current
senior Itanium architects and developers were able to confer with members of the
original Itanium design team, Clemens Roothaan from the University of Chicago and
Bill Worley of Secure64. Major Itanium authors David Mosberger, Stéphane Éranian,
and John R. Harrison were on hand to discuss their work. In addition, the setting
allowed influential corporate executives to converse with university researchers and
major Itanium end users.

Beverly Bernard, SGI Linux product manager and Gelato liaison, explained, "SGI
flagship server and visualization systems are now Linux OS-based and built entirely
on the Itanium processor; therefore SGI welcomes the opportunity to combine its
efforts with Gelato, Intel, and HP to encourage continued development of
applications for Linux and Itanium 2. The recent Gelato conference was particularly
successful in that it brought vendors and users together in a rich environment of
shared ideas, projects, and enthusiasm for this powerful new computing platform."

With the tremendous amount of high-quality technical information delivered and
critical mass of Linux-Itanium experts attending, Gelato's May 2005 meeting was a
major success. At the end of 2-1/2 days of presentations, project updates, knowledge
sharing, and brainstorming ideas for improving and expanding the platform, there was
a palpable level of excitement as attendees were filled with a new vigor and
determination to advance Linux on Itanium. The momentum will carry through to the
next meeting planned for October 3-5, 2005, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, to be hosted by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. All
interested parties are welcome to attend.

About Gelato
The Gelato Federation is the global research community dedicated to advancing the
Linux-Itanium platform through collaborative relationships targeting real-world
problems and solutions. Gelato members are suppliers and users of Linux-Itanium
technology with a shared goal of producing open-source solutions for academic,
government, and industrial HPC research. The Gelato portal (http://www.gelato.org)
serves as the primary channel for Federation business and collaborations.
Information about Gelato members' software and solutions are available through the
portal, and the community is welcome to participate and contribute.

For more information, please contact:
Nan Holda
nan@gelato.org
217.265.0947

Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries
in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds in several countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the
property of their respective owners.

# # #

Web Site = http://www.gelato.org

Contact Details = Nan Holda
1308 W. Main St., Uraban, IL, 61801, USA
nan@gelato.org
tel: 217.265.0947
fax: 217-3335579