Future Systems Challenges and Opportunities
Part of Seminar Series: ECE Distinguished Lecture Series
Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: ACES Auditorium, ACES 2.302
Dr. Tilak Agerwala
Vice President, Systems Research
IBM
Abstract
There is an increasing trend toward "Scale-out" systems that are designed using interconnected, low-cost, modular components. Even on the chip, multiple cores and accelerators will be combined to form computing blocks with potential for superior performance and power/performance. The challenge for the system designer is to achieve this potential for the widest range of applications possible, while approaching or even exceeding the reliability/availability characteristics and manageability of more traditional Scale-up systems. In this talk we discuss how IBM Research is attacking this challenge through innovative modular systems architectures and designs, including the software that provides virtualization, partitioning, and manages a scale-out system as a single entity. The spectrum of scale-out systems will range from game machines to supercomputers, and we are placing an increased focus on optimizing scale-out systems for commercial applications.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Tilak Agerwala is Vice President, Systems at IBM Research. He is responsible for developing the next-generation technologies for IBM’s systems, from microprocessors to commercial systems and supercomputers, as well as novel supercomputing algorithms and applications.
Tilak joined IBM at the T.J. Watson Research Center and has held executive positions at IBM in research, advanced development, development, marketing, and business development. His research interests are in the area of high performance computer architectures and systems.
Tilak received the W. Wallace McDowell Award from the IEEE in 1998 for “outstanding contributions to the development of high performance computers”. He is a founding member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He received his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.