Silicon, Systems, and Supercomputers

This event will be held in person only.

Every breakthrough in artificial intelligence, climate modeling, molecular simulation, energy production, pharmaceutical design, and more is powered by massive computational infrastructure. From the micro-architectures carved into silicon chips to the sprawling supercomputers and interconnected cloud clusters that span entire data centers, compute capacity is the foundational engine of modern scientific discovery, engineering innovation, and business operations and productivity.

On October 6, join the Austin Forum for a fast-paced, comprehensive overview presentation exploring the past, present, and possible futures of compute infrastructure. Our speakers will trace the trajectory of hardware evolution—from legacy chip paradigms to today's exascale hyperscale clusters, and share a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in computing infrastructure. The will conclude with some thoughts on the future of computing, from architectures to new applications drivers and impacts. Spanning technology, real-world applications, power/energy constraints, and global economics, this presentation will give you a complete picture of the physical systems driving our digital world.

Key Discussion Highlights

• The Evolution of Silicon: How Moore’s Law drove decades of microprocessor innovation, where chip scaling stands today, and why specialized accelerators (GPUs, TPUs, and domain-specific ASICs) have taken center stage.
• Systems, Clusters, and Clouds: How individual chips are integrated into boards, servers, racks, and massive clusters that power modern high-performance computing (HPC) supercomputers and public cloud platforms.
• Future Architectures on the Horizon: What comes next when traditional silicon hits physical limits? An exploration of alternative paradigms, including 3D stacked chiplets, optical/photonic computing, neuromorphic processing, and quantum integration.
• Workloads Shaping the Hardware: How applications—from frontier AI training and drug discovery to real-time defense and financial modeling—are dictating future hardware design requirements.
• Power, Cooling, and Economics: Confronting the physical reality of building gigawatt-scale infrastructure—including thermal management, energy grid demands, capital expenditure dynamics, and global supply chain considerations.

Event Agenda & Post-Event Networking

• Presentation: A high-octane, multi-perspective overview of silicon, systems, and supercomputer architectures.
• Audience Q&A: Bring your technical and economic questions for an interactive session with our expert presenters.
• Continued Conversation at B. D. Riley's: When the Q&A wraps, the evening is far from over! Head down the street with us to B. D. Riley's in Mueller (walking distance from Austin Energy)

Connect with fellow attendees, swap insights on the future of compute, and enjoy a complimentary drink courtesy of our generous Austin Forum Advisory Partners, Champions, and Friends.

Attendance Instructions

In-person

Join us at Austin Energy Headquarters, 4815 Mueller Blvd where you will be checked in at the front.

In-person attendees, please join us from 5:15 to 6:15 before the main presentation event for networking, snacks, and Austin Energy tech demos and tours! Also, feel free to stay afterward for social networking at B. D. Riley's. We look forward to seeing you and talking about tech face-to-face!
Parking: There are 44 visitor parking spaces available at Austin Energy, and street parking is also an option as well at the McBee St District Garage (1826 McBee St behind Alamo Cinema/Colleens).