Linked by David Adams on Tue 23rd Sep 2008 00:29 UTC
Microsoft just released Windows HPC Server 2008, with support for thousands of processors. A NYTimes article takes a closer look at Microsoft's ambitions in supercomputing, and current trends in the HPC field, where Microsoft has almost no current presence. Microsoft's strategy is probably a recognition that with the price of high-powered hardware decreasing, many new companies and organizations are finding application for high-powered systems, and they hope to be able to take a portion of that new business using people's familiarity with the Windows brand as a foot in the door.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
You joke, but there is also some truth to what you say. Most computing clusters are a bastard to use, and many doing research have at best quite modest general computer skills. Sure they know the math and science and can hack together stuff in some programming language (or make someone do it for them). But when it comes to getting their code onto the cluster, making it run and getting their results off the cluster again they are quite lost, and require constant hand holding by the support staff.
At a university I went to our department had a small 40 CPU cluster which stood idle most of the time because using batch queuing system was such a pain that no one really bothered.
I wouldn't be surprised if a pretty gui to handle that sort of stuff is exactly the route Microsoft tries to take. And if they do it well I can see it being quite successful. Probably not on top500 computers, but on small 50-200 core clusters that will be scattered around in local research departments.