|
Windows CCS Falls Off Top 500 Supercomputer List
Updated: November 15, 2006
by Alex Woodie
Microsoft and its Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 operating system fell off the Top 500 list of the biggest supercomputers in the world, according to the fall iteration of the list, which was released at the SuperComputing 2006 show in Tampa, Florida.
Microsoft had two listings on the Top 500 list in June, when it announced the release to manufacturing of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. However, it failed to register a single seat on the Top 500 as the size of supercomputers continues to grow.
Exactly why Microsoft fell off is a bit of a mystery. The two Windows high performance computing (HPC) boxes on the June list offered 10.5 teraflops of computing power when you combined the two systems, whereas the smallest system on the latest Top 500 list had just 2.7 teraflops.
The current Top 500 list can be found at www.top500.org.
Microsoft still has high aspirations for the HPC business, which is increasingly moving from RISC processors that can't run Windows, toward standard X64 processors that can run Windows. The company is betting that HPC customers will want a familiar, easy-to-use, and easy-to-deploy supercomputing solution, and that HPC vendors port their wares to Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.
In other HPC news, Microsoft announced a partnership last week with Bull, one of Europe's largest server makers, to sell Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 on Bull NovaScale R400 clusters. The servers use dual-core, 3.0 GHz Xeon processors and feature a front side bus running at 1333MHz.
RELATED STORIES
Dual-Core Processors Begin Takeover of Top 500 Super Ranking
Windows Compute Cluster Server is Ready, Microsoft Says
|
