John McCalpin, an internationally recognized expert in high performance computing (HPC) hardware architecture and analysis, has joined the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) as a research scientist to work in application performance on microprocessors of diverse architectures, TACC has announced.
“TACC is dedicated to supporting high-impact applications of advanced computing technologies, and building the most expert, passionate team is crucial to our success,” TACC Director Jay Boisseau said. “John will step in and make a difference immediately on the scientific impact TACC is able to deliver for our users worldwide.”
McCalpin is well-known in academia and industry as the author of the STREAM benchmark, the de facto standard measure of sustained memory bandwidth for high performance computers. With more than 25 years experience in academia and industry, McCalpin most recently led the technology strategy for accelerated computing and maintained comprehensive performance models for memory bandwidth at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
“We’re excited to have John on board to help us understand how to get the maximum performance out of the current and next-generation of microprocessors and accelerators, to evaluate application and algorithm performance characteristics, and to influence future generations of microprocessors to be more effective for science,” said Bill Barth, TACC HPC Team Leader. “In addition, John will be instrumental in determining how to most effectively achieve raw performance, price/performance, and performance per watt at the petascale level.”
McCalpin’s experience in high performance computing began in the early 1980s when he was a graduate student in physical oceanography, developing and applying numerical models for the simulation and analysis of the ocean’s circulation. The interaction of physics, applied math and computational science inherent in this work captivated him through graduate school, his faculty career and his computer industry career with companies such as Silicon Graphics, Inc. and International Business Machines Corporation.
“After 12 years focusing on performance analysis and system architecture in the computer industry,” McCalpin said, “I’m looking forward to returning to academia where I can use my experience to enhance the productivity of TACC’s scientific user community and to work with computer designers on the evolving characteristics of major HPC applications. The University of Texas at Austin has an exciting array of world-class departments, and TACC is the natural place to bring together domain scientists, algorithm specialists and software specialists to solve large computational problems.”
McCalpin earned his doctor’s and master’s degrees in oceanography from Florida State University and Texas AandM University, respectively. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Texas AandM.
