Parallella: Supercomputer for Embedded Systems

Supercomputing should be available for everyone who wants it. With that mission in mind, a team of engineers created Parallella, an 18-core supercomputer that’s a little bigger than a credit card. Parallella is open source hardware; the circuit diagrams are on GitHub and the machine runs Linux. Icing on the cake: Parallella is the most energy efficient supercomputer on the planet, and you can buy one for about $150 (USA).

You might think of Parallella as a Raspberry Pi, but with 18 cores instead of two. This presentation will show how to get up and running with Parallella, and why developers might care about supercomputing. Why does parallel computing matter? How can developers use parallel computing to deliver better results for clients? Let’s explore these questions together.

Speaker

Ray Hightower is founder of WisdomGroup and organizer of ChicagoRuby, WindyCityRails, and WindyCityThings, a new conference for IoT (Internet of Things). He has visited every state in the USA and now he’s working his way through Earth’s continents. He holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While there will be light refreshments available, feel free to "brown bag" it and bring in food from the outside to eat during the social hour.