Geek in Practice

Exactly two days after my pleasant chat with a developer of Shaheen Blue Gene computer, the 14th most powerful computer in the world, I start a course in Electric Engineering department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) called Digital Systems Engineering. It talks about the architecture of microprocessors and how to program them. Sounds fun so far, only thing is we’re gonna study the 8086 and 8088 processors which are, to computers, like dinosaurs to us. Now, one might argue that we should know the basics of microprocessing in order to understand more modern processors. My only question is, why, then, do we need to go all the way and build those old processors if we’re intended to use, learn and perhaps help develop much more modern processors? Why not know the simple basics and just move on?

I don’t want to start ranting about my Uni, I know I will not stop, but it’s something I noticed in KFUPM. They tend to teach some obsolete technologies for a reason I never figured out. Another example, there is a course that teaches Fortran language (Old and almost unused anymore language) and many departments require it in order to finish freshman year! Oh well, I hope one day someone with a little sense changes that.

After two good weeks in London, I think I had a good break. Is it good enough to start my mental engines again? I think not! But I’ll do it anyway! All in all, It was well needed and well deserved and I’m more relaxed now than two weeks ago for sure!

When I started this post I was still in London but for some reason, not even known to me,I didn’t continue my draft. I wanted to just have a look back at my trip to London. Luckily for me, I didn’t go all the way. On my way back, I sat next to some Englishman in the first row of a world traveler class on a British Airways Boeing 767. The guy turns out to be Andrew Wenfer, an IBM corporate senior employee. He was on the way to Saudi Arabia because he was on a mission to build a supercomputer. Wait, what? He is one of the developers responsible to connect and build up Shaheen Blue Gene/P in KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), the 14th most powerful computer in the world, in my homeland. Being a geek, I was so excited, of course! He showed me how a Blue Gene computer is assembled, connected, and ran! What got me more excited is that I knew already about Shaheen which operating system is Linux based (see: The Linuxologist and Top500.org).

This machine is so super it has 16,384 quadcore CPUs distributed to 16 racks, each rack has 1024 CPUs. WOW! To add more to the awe, each cpu is directly connected to 6 other ones forming a cube of CPUs around each and every CPU. The ones on the edges are connected to the other end so they form a full cycle (such system is called Taurus, developed also by IBM). And they all run together simultaneously, could run at NO TIME SHARING! According to Mr. Wenfer, it consumes 40 megawatts a day yet it’s still green in comparison to our regular computers! Also, they had a very sophisticated cooling system which keeps all CPUs on a relatively low temperature. I was, honestly, dumbstruck when showed me the photos of a Blue Gene computer he built, they look magnificent. He also showed me how it works, virtually. I wish to directly thank King Abdullah for the most powerful computer in the middle east.

Other than that, we talked about the regular Saudi-Westerner chat. Weather, Islam, weather, human rights,weather, women rights… etc. I always thought that, lately, westerners learned a little more about Saudi Arabia due the exposure we had in the last few years but turns out that they only know that women don’t drive around here, lol!