In 1986 Professor Dr. Hans Werner Meuer, director of the computer centre and professor for computer science at the University of Mannheim (Germany) co-founded and organized the "Mannheim Supercomputer Seminar" which had 81 participants.

[1] This was held yearly and became the annual International Supercomputing Conference and Exhibition (ISC).

Since 1993 the conference has been the venue for one of the twice yearly TOP500 announcements where the fastest 500 supercomputers in the world are named.

The conference celebrated 30 years with the 19 June 2016 meeting in Frankfurt, Germany.

[2] Its 33rd edition in 2019 attracted a record number of participants – 164 exhibitors, and 3,573 visitors from 64 countries.