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High-performance computing for academic research
Help your institution's scientists and researchers unlock
new insights faster with a high-performance computing platform that's familiar
to users of Microsoft software and that doesn't require expensive hardware.
Power and agility for researchers
Research that requires computers to run heavy processing
workloads—such as modeling, molecular simulation, advanced mathematics, and computational
chemistry—can happen on Microsoft 64-bit Windows HPC Server 2008. In addition to
getting the computing power you need to provide to researchers, you can build on
the platform that offers a familiar interface and tools that help you customize,
deploy, manage, and integrate with your existing IT infrastructure.
Key benefits
Built on the 64-bit Windows HPC Server 2008 platform, Microsoft high-performance
computing helps to achieve:
- Faster research results. Increase your computing power
and help remove roadblocks between you and the insights your research is targeting.
With an architecture that directly bypasses operating system and TCP/IP overhead,
NetworkDirect—the new Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) interface from Microsoft
for high-speed, low-latency networks, such as those running on InfiniBand, 10-Gigabit
Ethernet, and Myrine—achieves better performance through more efficient use of processor
resources.
- Enhanced productivity. Accomplish more—in less time and
with less effort—by using a platform that looks and works in a way that is familiar
to people who use the Microsoft Office system and other Microsoft software.
- Performance that grows with your needs. When you build
on the Windows HPC Server 2008 platform, you can efficiently scale to thousands
of processing cores and take advantage of management tools that help systems administrators
proactively monitor system health and maintain system stability.
- A flexible and future-ready platform. Reduce the complexity
of integrating with existing clusters by using the HPC Pack Job Scheduler, which
supports industry standards, such as Open Grid Forum (OGF) HPC Profile for
job scheduler interoperability. The Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA)
integrates applications to maximize existing investments while extending UNIX-based
and LINUX-based applications to Windows-based systems.
- Fast deployment. Set up and configure your system using
system templates that allow an HPC administrator to create standardized system images
or apply patches that can be consistently deployed across the cluster.
- A system that runs smoothly. Use built-in diagnostic tools
to quickly identify and diagnose hardware, software, or network problems across
the cluster. The combination of Windows Failover Services and SQL Server database
clustering provides head node redundancy in the event of a hardware failure. Additional
capabilities, such as automatic handling of routine and redundant tasks, and intelligent
reporting and monitoring are possible through the use of System Center Operations
Manager 2007.
Customer success case studies
Researchers at Rutgers choose Windows HPC Server for real-world computing questions.
When researchers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey wanted to explore massive computing scenarios with
real-world significance for fields such as financial services and pharmaceuticals, they turned to Windows HPC Server 2008.
In one research project, the software proved at least 30 percent faster than Linux. The Windows HPC Server cluster was deployed
in one day and works like the Windows operating system with which users and administrators are already familiar.
RWTH Aachen University, a research university, improves performance with Windows HPC Server 2008 solution.
To support a growing number of Windows-based parallel applications, the Center for
Computing and Communication (CCC) at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, upgraded
from Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 to Windows HPC Server 2008 and is taking
advantage of increased network performance and other advanced features of the new
product.
Researchers at the University of Washington, Department of Bioengineering, move from Linux to Windows, improving performance and gaining new capabilities.
As a world leader in protein behavior research, the Daggett Research Group at the
University of Washington (state) is always in need of more computing power. The
group augmented its existing Linux-based high-performance computing resources with
two new HPC systems based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, which has enabled
the group to make fundamental breakthroughs in simulation results analysis.
Get started
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