Windows for Supercomputers Running at 68.5 Teraflops

Microsoft is making headway with the adoption of Windows HPC Server 2008, and taking Windows operating system for supercomputers at a new apex even though the platform is not finalized yet. According to the Redmond company, a Beta version of HPC Server 2008 is running on the system at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) which ranked at the 23rd position among the world's Top 500 largest supercomputers. NCSA's supercomputer with Windows HPC Server 2008 Beta hit 68.5 teraflops.

"Our experience with Windows HPC Server 2008 has been impressive," said Robert Pennington, deputy director of the NCSA. Microsoft revealed at the International Supercomputing Conference that the NCSA now runs the fastest Windows cluster worldwide. Windows HPC Server 2008 climbed on the NCSA'a 68.5 teraflops supercomputing systems with 9,472 cores, to no less than 77.7% efficiency.

"Deploying it was much easier than we expected, and the performance results have surpassed our expectations. When we deployed Windows on our cluster, which has more than 1,000 nodes, we went from bare metal to running the LINPACK benchmark programs in just four hours. The performance of Windows HPC Server 2008 has yielded efficiencies that are among the highest we've seen for this class of machine," Pennington added.

Microsoft also mentioned the second-largest Windows cluster in deployment today, at the Swedish University Umea, also running a Beta version of Windows HPC Server 2008. With 5,376 cores, the Umea supercomputing system reached 85.5% efficiency and 46 teraflops. But Umea also represents a first for Microsoft, namely the first time when Windows HPC Server 2008 is deployed on IBM hardware as the university's cluster infrastructure is comprised of 672 IBM blade servers.

"The systems at Umea University and NSCA demonstrate that Windows can scale to the rarefied atmosphere of the top 25 supercomputing systems in the world - which up to now have relied on dedicated, specialized hardware and software," commented Kyril Faenov, general manager of HPC at Microsoft.