Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003

Microsoft has released its server application for supercomputing clusters, Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 based on the new 64-bit operating system. Trial versions of Compute Cluster Server can be downloaded from Microsoft site. The company expects to start distributing volume licenses in August.

The system will allow users to exploit high performance computing power from their desktops using the familiar Windows desktop environment. Microsoft expects the new system to appeal to researchers in areas as diverse as biological and medical research, advanced engineering, processor-heavy visualisations, and even financial market predictions.

The Server 2003 has already been deployed at several sites for a variety of computationally intensive applications. The Computational Biology Service Unit in Ithaca, New York, attached to Cornell University, has been using the system for research activities in bioinformatics, including sequence-based data mining, population genetics and protein structure prediction. Northrop Grumman is using the new system for work in its Space Technology sector, supporting work for its contracts from the United States government for military and civil space systems. Other users include National Center for Atmospheric Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology's Global Scientific Information and Computing Center, French firm AREVA-Challenge, BAE Systems, CASPUR of Italy, Petrobras (the Brazilain Government's oil company), Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 is also the underlying operating system for a new High Performance Computing cluster at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) that recently achieved 4.1 teraflops on 896 processors.