Microsoft has taken another step in its effort to bring Windows in the world of supercomputing, having finished development of its computer cluster operating system. It has finalized the code for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, which is designed to allow multiple servers to work together to handle high-performance computing (HPC) tasks. Such work, long handled by systems from SGI and Cray, has increasingly been tackled by Linux clusters, though Microsoft has been planning its entry for some time.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-11-14
Windows has supported headless operation since at least Windows 2000.
Not only that but they do have a CLI-only mode
I won't buy this. None of the Windows guru I met were ever able to do headless operation with any Windows.
Having a CLI-only mode does not mean "headless operation" is possible either.
I don't even know which magic protocol nobody knows about you can use to do "headless operation" on Windows : enlighten me please.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-06-29
It's not. Do you seriously think that's a major issue? Even if their node setup runs it (which I'd doubt) it would be a tiny cost in memory and virtually no cost in cpu usage; unless you sit some idiot at the compute node to use it like a workstation.
The bigger concerns are probably things like rewriting software to work with Microsofts libraries, Windows NT's extremely heavy processes if you launch processes in your code, and if they haven't changed it on this, the 2GB limit on 32bit systems by default. And if their tcp/ip stack is as robust as it's supposed to be, now.
Member since:2005-08-26
Member since:
2005-07-07
Typically, supercomputer applications are for ludicrous amounts of number crunching, right?
How was a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse Pointer) interface helping the numbers crunch faster?