Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
Microsoft Releases Beta of High-Performance Computing Server
11/16/2007
Microsoft took the next step into the arena of high-performance computing (HPC) this week when it announced the release of the first beta of Windows HPC Server 2008, the successor to Compute Cluster Server 2003.The public beta is available here. The final version is expected to be generally available in the second half of 2008, Microsoft said in a press release.
The product was renamed, Microsoft said, "to reflect its readiness to tackle the most challenging HPC workloads". HPC Server 2008 is based on Windows 2008, slated for availability early next year; it will be a specially-crafted version meant to run on large clusters. Microsoft revealed few details of the server, but did list a number of key features, including a service oriented architecture (SOA) job scheduler; support for partners' clustered file systems; better failover capabilities; more efficient and scalable management tools; and high-speed networking.
Kyril Faenov, general manager of HPC at Microsoft, said in the release that Redmond has seen substantial gains in its HPC environment from the new server. "By upgrading to Windows HPC Server 2008 on our 2,048-core production test cluster, we increased the LINPACK performance by 30 percent and were able to deploy and validate the cluster in less than two hours using out-of-the-box software. Expanding beyond traditional MPI [Message Passing Interface]-based HPC applications, Windows HPC Server 2008 enables support for high-throughput SOA applications with its advanced Web service routing capability and paves the way for bringing HPC capabilities to a broad range of enterprise applications."
LINPACK is a software program that solves high-level mathematical equations. It's frequently used as a benchmark for computing power and performance.
Five years is a long time in the computer age for a new server release, but HPC Server 2008 has followed nearly the same timeline as Windows 2008, which will be released about five years after Windows Server 2003. Until Compute Cluster Server 2003's arrival on the scene, Microsoft had largely been frozen out of the HPC space. It was dominated by "big iron" and more scalable OSes like Unix and Linux.
HPC is still largely confined to the realm of science, engineering and medical and other research; many of the largest computer clusters are found at research universities. The trend over the last few years has been to put more cores on processors and more processors on chips, as it's been getting more and more difficult to squeeze additional performance out of a single processor.
Keith Ward is online news editor for the Redmond Media Group. You can contact him at kward@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
