“We need to make software run better,” said Gina Norling, a veteran in Minnesota’s high-performance computing world. “That’s the big question for AI.”
Gina has over 25 years of experience. She spent a significant part of her career at Cray Inc., a leader in supercomputers, which was bought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2019. She recently worked on El Capitan, currently known as the world’s most powerful supercomputer. Now, she holds an executive position at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the main chip provider for Cray’s systems, including El Capitan.
The focus on software efficiency in supercomputing is crucial. Engineers have limited time on these giant machines, making every calculation count. (Evan Ramstad)
Gina reached out to me after I wrote about Minnesota’s supercomputing sector in 2022. She highlighted that many people in the state are still deeply involved in this field, including those at HPE and local universities.
Recently, Gina shared a photo from the El Capitan dedication. It showed dozens of attendees at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
“There were two other Minnesotans there,” Norling noted. “These are key players in the project. But it’s not just these faces; many more from Minnesota are actively working on software development.”
El Capitan is used exclusively for government purposes. The next-fastest supercomputer, called Frontier, is located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, also built by HPE and powered by AMD chips. It attracts both private and academic researchers, alongside government agencies vying for access.
