Microsoft has announced the availability of the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 - its flagship product for High Performance Computing (HPC). The Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) has been designed specifically to run applications solving complex computations and is aimed at taking supercomputing to the mainstream by making it more accessible, affordable and easy to use. The company has identified engineering, oil & gas, academia and public sector as focus verticals, and is working with ISVs to develop applications that can run on or interoperate with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. These ISVs include Abaqus, Ansys, ESI Group, Fluent, MSC Software Corp, Schlumberger Information Systems and The Portland Group. Microsoft is also partnering with a range of OEM partners including AMD, Dell, HP, IBM and Intel.
Globally, Microsoft has seen Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 used by early-adopter customers for oil and gas reservoir simulation and seismic processing, by life sciences customers for simulations of enzyme catalysis and protein folding, and by manufacturing customers for vehicle design and safety improvements. Some of Microsoft's early adopter customers include: aQuantive, Inc., BAE Systems (UK), CASPUR (Italy), Cornell University's Computational Biology Service Unit, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Northrop Grumman Corp., Petrobras (Brazil), Queen's University Belfast (UK), Tokyo Institute of Technology's Global Scientific Information and Computing Center, University of Cincinnati's Genome Research Institute, and Virginia Tech's Computational Bioinformatics and Bioimaging Laboratory. Over the next few years Microsoft will work closely with its partners and customers to bring HPC to the mainstream; by taking it beyond traditional supercomputing centers, to departments and divisions in commercial organizations as well as the public sector.
Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 provides customers with a simplified deployment and management experience, easy integration with existing Windows infrastructure, and allows customers to leverage their existing development skills using Visual Studio 2005. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 will deliver a more mainstream platform for engineers, scientists and researchers to solve scaled-out business and scientific computational problems.
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