HPC Pack 2012 Released

As part of Microsoft’s high-performance computing (HPC) products, an updated HPC Pack and additional tools were released in Dec. 2012. Although there will not be a special HPC edition of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft continues to provide an HPC solution with the free HPC Pack 2012 that can be applied to the latest Windows server and client installations. HPC Pack 2012 must be run on Windows Server 2012 for the head nodes, but customers with Software Assurance (SA) on a previous HPC server will be granted upgrade rights to Windows Server 2012.

Windows Server HPC Edition Eliminated

Unlike previous versions of Windows Server, for which there was a special edition called Windows HPC Server, there will be no HPC edition for Windows Server 2012. However, when run with Windows Server Standard or Datacenter, the single, free HPC Pack 2012 provides equivalent functionality to the previous HPC edition and several HPC Packs, reducing the need for customers to purchase an array of HPC licenses. An HPC solution is instead licensed primarily through the purchase of Windows Server licenses. Customers with SA on their HPC software will be granted rights to use the new server OS.