History

As early as 1986 - at the dawn of HPC time - Professor Hans Werner Meuer - then director of the computer center and professor for computer science at the University of Mannheim (Germany) there co-founded and organized the “Supercomputer Seminar” to give a forum to people interested in HPC and to provide a platform for professional and personal exchanges of ideas and experiences.?

Starting from those early beginnings, the ISC event has evolved over the years into the Annual International Supercomputing Conference featuring a prestigious HPC exhibition and conference drawing expert speakers, exhibitors, researchers, IT managers and students from all over the world - thus providing a unique platform for connecting the HPC community on a global scale.?

In 1993 Professor Hans Werner Meuer had started the TOP500 project together with Erich Strohmaier (previously at the University of Mannheim, currently at the NERSC) and Jack Dongarra (University of Tennessee and ORNL). In the TOP500 list the most powerful computers in the world are listed ranked by their performance on the Linpack Benchmark. The list is generated and released twice a year. The first of these releases always coincides with the International Supercomputing Conference in June, the second one is presented in November at the IEEE Super Computer Conference in the USA.

ISC has grown to an ideal size with participant numbers approaching 1,500, ensuring productive sessions and interactions in a familiar atmosphere. Last, but not least, ISC has earned a well-deserved reputation for its after-hour social events that epitomize ‚Gemuetlichkeit‘.