14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made available for download the first Beta build of its next generation of Windows for supercomputers. The Redmond company announced at Supercomputing 2009 the immediate availability of Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta, the successor of the pain vanilla Windows HPC Server 2008, as the official moniker implies. Fact is that with the forthcoming version of Windows for the high performance computing market, Microsoft is continuing with the same strategy as for the previous release, namely an intimate connection between the HPC flavor of the platform and the latest release of Windows Server.
In this regard, Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 is based on the 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows Server 2008 R2, the company noted. The testing program build around Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 is not opened to the general public. After all, the Windows operating system for supercomputers is designed for customers that need cluster-based supercomputing, and not for end users.
It is on Microsoft Connect that the Redmond company is offering early adopters a chance to test drive Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. Customers that want to grab the bits for the Beta development milestone will need to visit Connect and choose to participate in the Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 Beta Program. Remember, a supercomputer based on x64 processors is required, as only 64-bit high performance computing machines are supported, with 32-bit and ia64 architectures left out.
Don Pattee, senior program manager at Microsoft on the Windows HPC Server team, revealed some of the new features brought to the table by Windows HPC Server 2008 R2:
“•Improved scalability, with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 offering out-of-the-box support for deploying, running and managing clusters up to 1,000 nodes
•New configuration and deployment options such as diskless boot, mixed-version clusters and support for a remote head node database
•Improved system management, diagnostics and reporting including an enhanced heat map, multiple customizable tabs, an extensible diagnostic framework and the ability to create richer custom reports
•Improved support for service-oriented architecture (SOA) workloads including a new fire-and-recollect programming model, finalization hooks, improved Java interoperability, automatic restart and failover of broker nodes, and improved management, monitoring, diagnostics and debugging
•Message Passing Interface (MPI) and networking enhancements including optimizations for new processors, enhanced support for RDMA over Ethernet and InfiniBand, improved MPI debugging, and a pushbutton HPC LINPACK optimization wizard
•New ways to accelerate Microsoft Office Excel workbooks such as support for Cluster-Aware User-Defined Functions and the capability to run distributed Excel 2010 for the cluster.”