"Peaks, Streams, and Cascades", the theme of CUG 2004, highlights the abundant natural beauty of East Tennessee using terms also applicable to Cray and supercomputing. We have the ubiquitous "peaks" of performance and bandwidth, "streams" of the Cray multi-streaming processors, and "Cascade", the Cray-led project to design novel high-productivity computing systems. Not far from the site of CUG 2004 in downtown Knoxville, however, the theme takes its more tangible form.
Knoxville and Oak Ridge lie in the valley between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland Mountains, two spectacular links of the ancient Appalachian chain. Streams flow down into the rivers of the valley from these misty green peaks, tumbling down forest cascades and waterfalls along the way. We hope that attendees of CUG 2004 will have the opportunity to appreciate both the technological and natural aspects of our theme.
