ISC Group
ISC Group, operated by Prometeus GmbH, organizes ISC High Performance, Europe's leading HPC conference (~3,500 attendees), and publishes the TOP500 supercomputer ranking twice yearly, serving the global HPC research and vendor community through events and digital platforms.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1998
- HeadquartersSinsheim, Germany
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What ISC Group does
ISC Group is a Sinsheim, Germany-based event management and industry benchmarking company operating under Prometeus GmbH (PROMETEUS Professor Meuer Technologieberatung und - Services GmbH). Founded in 1998 by Prof. Hans Meuer and now run by his sons Martin and Thomas Meuer as co-managing directors, the company is privately held and family-owned with 32 employees. Its core activity is organizing the ISC High Performance conference, Europe's leading High Performance Computing (HPC) event, a five-day technical program and exhibition attracting approximately 3,500 attendees annually.
The company's two principal products are the ISC High Performance conference and the TOP500 list. TOP500, originated in 1986, ranks the world's 500 most powerful general-purpose computer systems and is published twice yearly, in June at ISC High Performance in Germany and in November at the Supercomputing Conference in the United States. ISC Group also operates TOP500 News as a year-round HPC news portal and previously launched adjacent events ISC Cloud (2010) and ISC Big Data (2013), which were merged into ISC Cloud & Big Data in 2015 and have been paused since 2016.
ISC Group generates revenue primarily through conference registration fees and exhibition/sponsorship fees paid by HPC hardware and software vendors showcasing at ISC High Performance, supplemented by monetization of the TOP500 platform. Its distribution is global, with a transatlantic event cadence, and its go-to-market is event-driven, anchored by one major annual conference plus the digital TOP500 platform. The customer base is the global HPC community, including researchers, practitioners, and technology vendors.
ISC Group firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ISC Group
- Legal name
- PROMETEUS Professor Meuer Technologieberatung und - Services GmbH
- Website
- https://isc-group.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1998
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- ISC Group, operated by Prometeus GmbH, organizes ISC High Performance, Europe's leading HPC conference (~3,500 attendees), and publishes the TOP500 supercomputer ranking twice yearly, serving the global HPC research and vendor community through events and digital platforms.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ISC Group industry classification
Industry- Product category
- HPC Conferences & Events
- NAICS
- Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Professional Organizations (813920)
- SIC
- Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management (THAHACAM)
Keywords
Where ISC Group is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Sinsheim
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
ISC Group business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D
Revenue model
- Conference and Exhibition Fees: Revenue generated from ISC High Performance conference attendance fees and exhibition/sponsorship fees from vendors showcasing HPC solutions.
- TOP500 Platform: TOP500 serves as a platform providing topical information and insights for the HPC community year-round, supporting the events business.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
ISC Group product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ISC Group organizes the ISC High Performance conference, a five-day technical program and exhibition for high-performance computing, networking, and storage that attracts approximately 3,500 attendees globally. The company also publishes the TOP500 list of the world's 500 most powerful computer systems twice yearly, and operates the TOP500 News portal as a year-round information source for the HPC community.
Product overview
ISC Group provides event management services and publishes rankings for the high-performance computing (HPC) community. The company operates a portfolio of conference products (ISC High Performance, ISC Cloud & Big Data), manages the TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, and operates TOP500 News as a news portal. These offerings work together to serve the HPC community through events, rankings, and industry information.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- ISC Events: International conference brand organizing events focused on advanced computing, including ISC High Performance and ISC Cloud & Big Data.
- TOP500
Products and services
- ISC High Performance A global conference and exhibition for high-performance computing, networking, and storage, offering a five-day technical program that attracts approximately 3,500 attendees from around the world. It serves HPC vendors, researchers, and enterprise practitioners.
- TOP500 A ranking of the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world, published twice a year (June and November) providing the most accurate, reliable, and historically consistent ranking of general-purpose HPC systems. It serves as a widely accepted industry benchmark for supercomputer performance.
- TOP500 News A leading news portal for HPC-related news, providing year-round topical information and insights for the HPC community.
- ISC Events The conference brand under which ISC Group organizes international events focusing on advanced computing, bringing together hardware and software experts with attendees.
Companies that use ISC Group
Customer profileSegments1 record
Ideal customer profiles3 records
ISC Group technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature1 record
ISC Group partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators4 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
ISC Group competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- NVIDIA GTC: NVIDIA's flagship conference covering AI, HPC, and accelerated computing. Comparable to ISC High Performance as a vendor-driven HPC/AI gathering, though it is owned and operated by a single HPC chip vendor rather than an independent organizer.
- Hannover Messe: One of the world's largest industrial trade fairs held annually in Germany, covering industrial digitalization, automation, and increasingly HPC/AI infrastructure. Comparable as a large-scale German-anchored industrial technology exhibition with overlapping HPC and high-performance infrastructure exhibitors.
- AWS re:Invent: Amazon's annual cloud and computing infrastructure conference. Comparable as a large, globally attended technical conference for HPC and high-performance cloud workloads, though it is vendor-organized and cloud-focused rather than independent and HPC-specific.
Direct peers
- Hot Chips: An annual conference on high-performance processor and chip architecture. Comparable to ISC High Performance as a niche, community-led technical conference for HPC hardware practitioners, though with a tighter focus on silicon design.
- ISC Cloud & Big Data: ISC Group's own adjacent conference (launched 2010, merged with ISC Big Data in 2015, currently paused since 2016). Included because it is a direct internal peer showing ISC Group's own failed attempt to expand into adjacent HPC-adjacent verticals.
- SC Conference (Supercomputing Conference): The premier annual HPC conference held annually in the US and jointly organized by ACM and IEEE. It is ISC Group's closest direct competitor: TOP500 is co-published at SC every November, and the two events split the global HPC exhibition market.
- International Supercomputing Conference (Historical Name): The previous name under which ISC High Performance operated. Included as a peer reference since this is the same business under its prior brand identity, confirming its long heritage in the HPC events space.
Regional players
- SIGGRAPH: ACM's flagship conference for computer graphics and interactive techniques, sharing the same 'flagship conference + community organization' business model as ISC Group and serving HPC-adjacent visualization and simulation communities.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
ISC Group social profiles
Digital presenceISC Group financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ISC Group leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
ISC Group funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ISC Group M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ISC Group
What does ISC Group do?
ISC Group organizes the ISC High Performance conference, a five-day technical program and exhibition for high-performance computing, networking, and storage that attracts approximately 3,500 attendees globally. The company also publishes the TOP500 list of the world's 500 most powerful computer systems twice yearly, and operates the TOP500 News portal as a year-round information source for the HPC community.
Is ISC Group a public or private company?
ISC Group is a private company. It is classified as family owned and is currently operating.
When was ISC Group founded?
ISC Group was founded in 1998. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is ISC Group based?
ISC Group is headquartered in Sinsheim, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does ISC Group make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Conference and Exhibition Fees are the primary driver. The others are TOP500 Platform.
Who are ISC Group's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are NVIDIA GTC, Hannover Messe and AWS re:Invent. Direct peers are Hot Chips, ISC Cloud & Big Data, SC Conference (Supercomputing Conference) and International Supercomputing Conference (Historical Name). SIGGRAPH is listed as a regional player.
Does ISC Group have an API?
No public API is recorded for ISC Group.
What industry is ISC Group in?
ISC Group's product category is HPC Conferences & Events. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAHACAA, Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies), with a secondary code of THAHACAM, Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management. Its NAICS code is 56192 and its SIC code is 8600.