Where we come from

The company that runs ISC Group, Prometeus GmbH, was founded in 1998 by Prof. Hans Meuer – also known as “the father of European supercomputing.” After his first experience with data processing in 1960, over the next 50 years Hans would take on a variety of positions in the world of supercomputing. One of his personal maxims, “maximum quality and constant optimization,” continues to drive ISC Group today.

In 1986, Prof. Meuer began publishing the annual Mannheim Supercomputing Statistik, – a list of vector computing systems in Europe, Japan, and the United States – along with Erich Strohmaier, during his tenure at the University of Mannheim. When Jack Dongarra and his LINPACK benchmark joined the project, the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers was born. To this day, TOP500 remains an important source of information for manufacturers, users, and other industry-watchers. It is updated and published every six months, at ISC High Performance in Germany (June) and the Supercomputing Conference (SC) in the United States (November).

In the same year that Hans published the annual Mannheim Supercomputing Statistik, he organized the first supercomputing conference, the Mannheim Supercomputing Seminar, which drew 81 attendees. Fifteen years later, the event was renamed the International Supercomputing Conference, which has been taking place in different locations across Germany ever since. Most recently, some 3,500 visitors flocked to ISC High Performance 2017 (the current name of this leading event) in Frankfurt am Main.

The year 2010 witnessed several major developments: ISC Events was established as a new business area within the group, and a new conference, ISC Cloud, was introduced.

In 2013, ISC Group capitalized on its innovation and growth in adding another event to its portfolio: ISC Big Data. This conference was merged with ISC Cloud in 2015 and operated under the name ISC Cloud & Big Data in that year. Since 2016 ISC Cloud & Big Data has been paused until further notice.

In 2014, Prof. Hans Meuer passed away at the age of 77. He had served as managing director of Prometeus until early 2013. The company is now under the direction of Hans's two sons, Martin and Thomas Meuer, who continue to follow their father's example in “Moving Forward” as a family-run organization focused on advancing people, technology, and the businesses that they drive.