Windows Compute Cluster Edition Released

An edition of Windows Server specifically geared to high-performance computing (HPC) clusters—groups of identical, low-cost servers usually running the same application—was released to manufacturing in June 2006 with general availability anticipated for Aug. 2006. Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003 aims to provide a cost-effective, Windows-based solution for HPC clusters in organizations with Windows infrastructures. However, the product shows signs of being a first release—for example, while it does work with new server-based features of Excel, it uses some deprecated server technologies.

High-Performance Computing

HPC systems speed performance of compute-intensive applications by applying large numbers of processors working in parallel. HPC has its roots in academia and research, particularly physical sciences and engineering, where it has been used for applications such as weather simulation and high-energy physics data analysis.

However, HPC is not strictly an idiosyncrasy of academic and research fields. Over the past 10 years, commercial demand for HPC has grown to the point where more than half of the 500 most powerful computing systems (as reported on the site www.top500.org) support nonacademic applications, serving purposes such as quantitative analysis of financial data and analysis of seismic information for oil exploration.