The Leading Source for Global News and Information Covering the Ecosystem of High Productivity Computing
June 11, 2008
Customers report ease of development and deployment in ventures ranging from biotechnology to urban modeling
REDMOND, Wash., June 11 -- While many students leave campus for summer vacation, university research teams across the country are gearing up to address some of the world's most challenging technical computing problems with Microsoft Corp.'s high-performance computing (HPC) solutions. Eight of the nation's top supercomputing institutions -- Louisiana State University; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; University of Arizona; University of Florida; University of Iowa; University of Nebraska at Omaha; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and University of Washington -- now running Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS 2003) have chosen Microsoft to undertake ventures that will bring benefits to their research, teaching and learning process.
"With this easy-to-use platform, these universities are efficiently and cost-effectively developing and deploying the HPC systems their talented researchers need and expect," said Anthony Salcito, general manager, U.S. Enterprise Education at Microsoft. "Our Microsoft team is working side-by-side with universities to make advanced server technologies available to university researchers who are creating solutions to some of society's greatest challenges."
Researchers moving to CCS 2003 report that it yields performance gains and new capabilities even without any optimization. Valerie Daggett, University of Washington professor and principal investigator of the Daggett Research Group within the university's Department of Bioengineering, reported that the simulation software performed 5 percent better on CCS 2003 than on the previous heavily optimized version that was running on identical hardware. CCS 2003 also enabled Daggett to double-task a cluster, using it for both simulation and analysis.
Projects Showcase HPC Impact in Diverse Areas of Study
The U.S. universities working on the Microsoft platform vary in size, scope and focus. Projects include the following:
*At the University of Iowa, CCS 2003 is being used for HPC efforts in medical research and specifically for improving digital medical imaging. The increased tomography image resolution generated from HPC is helping to improve digitalized diagnostic systems for cancer and other health issues. More information about HPC efforts at the University of Iowa is available at http://www.uiowa.edu/~mihpclab.
"These institutions and others across the country are doing incredible work in areas that will change the world for future generations," Salcito said. "Now, through one Microsoft platform, we're enabling this progress -- from deployment and parallel programming to management -- in ways that will set their work apart in the supercomputing arena."
To learn more about Microsoft's HPC solutions for education, science and research, visit http://www.microsoft.com/hpc/education.mspx.
About Microsoft
Page: 1 of 2(Digg, Technorati, more)
PGI Accelerator™ Fortran 95/03 and C99 compilers for x64+NVIDIA
Accelerate applications on x64+GPU platforms by adding OpenMP-like compiler directives to existing Fortran and C programs. Available now for Linux, MacOS and Windows. Download a free 15 day trial.
Platform HPC Workgroup Manager
Platform HPC Workgroup Manager integrates all the cluster productivity tools you need to deploy, run and manage your HPC environment.
C-DAC announces plans for a petaflop system; IBM researchers are working on vertical integration techniques to extend Moore's Law another 15 years. We recap those stories and more in our weekly wrapup.
Read More...
The Moscow State University supercomputer, Lomonosov, has been selected for a high-performance makeover, with the goal of tripling its processing power to achieve petaflop-level performance in 2010. T-Platforms, who developed and manufactured the supercomputer, is the odds-on favorite to lead the project.
Read More...
Right on schedule, Intel has launched its Xeon 5600 processors, codenamed "Westmere EP." The 5600 represents the 32nm sequel to the Xeon 5500 (Nehalem EP) for dual-socket servers. Intel is touting better performance and energy efficiency, along with new security features, as the big selling points of the new Xeons.
Read More...
Mar 19 | OfficialWire | New super to support intelligence work Down Under. Read more...
Mar 18 | ChannelWeb | Westmere parts already showing up in HPC machines. Read more...
Mar 17 | The Register | But what about the tier ones? Read more...
Mar 17 | Cadalyst Magazine | A new generation of workstations is changing the nature of technical computing. Read more...
Mar 17 | Linux Magazine | Latest iteration of Sun Grid Engine able to tap into Cloud. Read more...
Jan 12 | | In-depth look at vSMP Foundation server virtualization technology, technical implementation, use cases and capabilities. The technical whitepaper provides an architectural overview and details on the three vSMP Foundation products: vSMP Foundation for SMP, vSMP Foundation for Cluster and vSMP Foundation for Cloud.
Jan 18 | | This white paper discusses Gore’s copper cable assemblies, and how they continue to exceed the standards for providing reliable, cost-effective solutions for high-performance computer applications.
Join this online panel discussion for live Q&A with leading industry experts, analysts, and end-users to discuss the latest innovations, best practices, barriers to implementation, and measurable benefits of server virtualization with a particular focus on today's real world solutions.
Learn about scalable fault-tolerant architectures and examples of energy efficient and scalable supercomputing clusters using dual QDR InfiniBand to combine capacity computing with network failover capabilities with the help of programming languages such as MPI and a robust Linux cluster management package.
LIVE@SCO9: The IBM team discusses new innovations in hardware, software and services that help clients better understand their workloads and get insight from their R&D efforts. Technology demonstrations include the soon-to-be-released Power7 HPC processor, the DCS990 system with 2.4 petabytes of storage, the xCAT management tool, secure HPC cloud computing and more. Winners of two HPCwire Readers' and Editors’ Choice Awards! Take the IBM virtual tour at SC09 or more information go online to: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/deepcomputing/sc09.html