Tri-Cities Tech Business Update
Microsoft veteran joins PNNL
John Feo
Computational scientist John Feo has joined the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to lead software development for supercomputers with multi-threaded architecture. This type of computer hardware can analyze vast amounts of data found in complex networks more efficiently than conventional architecture. Feo will serve as the director of a group of scientists developing software for the multi-threaded Cray XMT and similar computers. The XMT's memory is built to handle seemingly random data faster than typical hardware. Feo will direct the new Center for Adaptive Supercomputing Software on the PNNL campus. The Center is home to the only Cray XMT system available to external scientific users as an Open Science system. At the Center, researchers are developing software that can analyze and visualize data coming from many types of complex networks, such as the nation's electrical grid or biological communities in the subsurface. Feo joins PNNL from Microsoft Corporation, where he led a group developing new applications for many core processors.
