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TMCNet: Cray official looks to future at conference [The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.]

[August 25, 2010]

Cray official looks to future at conference [The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.]

(Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, WI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 25--THE NUMBER -- one exaflop -- is staggering.

In the world of supercomputers, it's 1 million trillion calculations per second. It represents about the combined computing power generated by 50 million laptops. It's also a benchmark Cray wants to reach by 2018, according to David Kiefer, the company's vice president of business development. Cray maintains corporate offices in Seattle, but much of its design and manufacturing work is done in Chippewa Falls, where it has about 250 employees.


"We want to be the fastest, best-performing system in the world," he said.

Cray's XT5, or Jaguar, supercomputer currently is the world's fastest. Jaguar can perform at 2.3 petaflops, one of which is 1,000 trillion operations per second.

Kiefer detailed the company's history and future goals as one of the featured speakers Tuesday during "Inventing the Future: A Summit for Healthcare, Business and Academic Leaders," a daylong conference at Sacred Heart Hospital.

The summit focused on the use of technology and innovation to overcome challenges facing the health care industry. Speakers addressed innovative clinical technologies and the future of technology in health care. A panel discussion centered on "meaningful use," a standard used by a federal program that provides incentives for health care providers that meet the requirement in their implementation and use of electronic health records.

Hoda Sayed-Friel, vice president of MEDITECH, a software vendor in the health care informatics industry, was the keynote speaker. Rebecca DiSalvo, chief medical information officer for Hospital Sisters Health System, which includes Sacred Heart and St. Joseph's Hospital in Chippewa Falls, was on the meaningful use panel.

Challenges for providers in using electronic health records include a lack of physical space, said DiSalvo, who added that there has to be a cultural change in record keeping.

"(But) the public is willing to utilize technology to access health care," she said.

Marlaire can be reached at 715-833-9215, 800-236-7077 or liam.marlaire@ecpc.com.

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