The need for diversity in HPC: HPC'08 keynote address

ABSTRACT

For both hardware and software in high-performance computing (HPC), there are strong trends towards homogeneity. Although there are strong economic, technological, and social reasons behind consolidation in HPC, the lack of a diverse toolbox has some potential, long-term risks. With only a single kind of hammer, will everything look like a nail? If the tools to tackle the hard problems are no longer available, will only the easy problems be solved?