Microsoft releases Windows for supercomputers

Stan Beer
Saturday, 10 June 2006 08:53

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft has announced into entry into the high performance computing (HPC) market, an area of computing currently dominated by the Linux operating system. With the release of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Microsoft's first operating system designed to run parallel, HPC applications, the software company says it has brought HPC into the mainstream, claiming both low cost and ease of use as benefits.

High performance computers, sometimes called supercomputers, are comprised of a number of processors running in parallel and are used to solve complex computations used in real world situations such as geological surveys, weather forecasting, defence, engineering and medical research. About 75% of the top 500 supercomputers in the world run some flavour of Linux, with most of the remainder running one of the varieties of Unix. Until now, Windows has had a negligible share of the HPC market.

According to Microsoft, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 will provide a reliable, HPC platform that is simple to deploy, operate, and integrate with existing infrastructure and tools. The product will be available to customers in August, and evaluation versions will be provided to attendees of the Microsoft TechEd 2006 conference, June 11-16 in Boston.

The senior vice president of server and tools business at Mcrosoft, Bob Muglia, claims that the new Microsoft HPC operating system will offer both cost and usability advantages compared to existing platforms.

"High performance computing technology holds great potential for expanding the opportunities within engineering, medical research, exploration and other critical human endeavors, but until now it has been too expensive and too difficult for many people to use effectively," said Muglia. "Microsoft is making HPC technology more mainstream by bringing the cost advantages, ease of use and partner ecosystem of the Windows Server platform to departments and divisions in commercial industry and the public sector. We want HPC technology to become a pervasive resource -- something that's as easy to locate and use as printers are today. Microsoft is excited about the promise this holds for our customers and partners in the months and years ahead."

Microsoft also claims that Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 will enable customers to more easily integrate their HPC applications with existing Windows infrastructures and to leverage their existing development skills using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Microsoft believes that its new HPC product will deliver a more mainstream way for engineers, scientists and researchers to solve business and scientific computational problems.

According to IT analyst firm IDC, the high-performance and technical computing market grew approximately 24 percent in 2005 to reach a record $9.2 billion (U.S.) in revenue.

Evaluation versions of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 are available from http://www.microsoft.com/hpc. The product will be available in August for an estimated price of US$469 per node.