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Windows Cluster Edition
eth8686 writes "Microsoft is aiming to have its first cluster version of Windows ready in time for a supercomputing conference this fall." From the article: "The next version of the Compute Cluster edition will extend to Microsoft's .Net programming infrastructure, letting developers write software using the C# programming language, he said."
What is the fundamental difference with the "cluster version" of Windows? OS X clusters just fine and there are no "special editions" other than a few software additions that hardly count as a different OS. And Linux requires very little to get it in a cluster compute configuration.
.Net programming infrastructure, letting developers write software using the C# programming language, he said.
.Net is easier and more secure.
However, Theimer said the cluster version will include some restrictions on how the version can be used to prevent companies from performing standard Web hosting or other functions.
Wow. When you compare this to the standard capability of OS X, it seems like a real rip off. You get reduced functionality. Why?
The first version will reproduce many basic features of Linux clusters, Theimer said.
Then why not use Linux?
The next version of the Compute Cluster edition will extend to Microsoft's
Ah, I see why now. But what impetus is there to use the first version if this is coming in the second version? Kinda like Windows 1.0 I guess.
Although such code runs more slowly than C programs running directly on Windows,
Aauuummm........
writing programs in C# that run atop
Says who? It certainly is/will be easier but more secure is something that has yet to be proven. To date, the track record is not impressive.
Often, Theimer said, it's more important to have a program as soon as possible than to have it running at peak performance, he said.
Ah, the fast food approach to software design. Don't you know that stuff makes you code obese and causes an early demise necessitating frequent checkups?
A third version will include developer improvements to ease programming on clusters. It also will include high-level management tools and will help customers integrate their high-performance computing equipment with the rest of their infrastructure, he said.
This is going to be in the third version of the release? I guess they have been looking at Xgrid, Pooch and other software and it will take them two versions to integrate what others have already got.
Seriously, Microsoft. Please come up with some innovative features and give us something that no other vendor offers or in a package so slick that we cannot help ourselves, but to purchase the Microsoft solution. This is nothing that is not offered elsewhere in the market, but has the appearance of locking us further into a Microsoft paradigm.
You guys have the right idea in that cluster computing is going to be a bigger market than it currently is, but you have to be more hungry and learn again how to ship software that creates desire and meets your customers needs in a timely fashion.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If you're spending $millions on a cluster, it's more useful to spend the money you'd spend licensing MS software on more computers for your cluster.
cost benefit analysis.
Let me be the first one to say: Windows isn't
- Designed
- Ment
- Capable
for/of running on a Top500 server.The most important part is the design on those systems. They need flexibility. Windows is anything but flexible. No wonder that the top500 is mostly made up from unix/linux systems.
They need customized things, not a toy. The people running those supercomputers want to customize things themselves. Windows is just not ment for anything else than desktops, thats the truth and i know i'll get flamed for it.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I work in the field (sysadmin for a 800 node cluster), and this is pretty laughable. Microsoft is desperate for the "street cred" of being able to handle high performance computing. Sun, IBM, Dell, HP, Apple all have it. Microsoft doesn't.
If they want so much as the proverbial foot in the door, they must 1) release all (as in *ALL*) of the source code under a GPL or BSD license, 2) make it available for free to all comers, 3) have user's 3rd-party apps (ISE-TCAD, CFDRC, etc) ported, and 4) provide a knowledge base equal to (All Linux + BSD hackers) * Google.
And that only gets their foot in the door.
No argument there.
They need customized things, not a toy. The people running those supercomputers want to customize things themselves. Windows is just not ment for anything else than desktops, thats the truth and i know i'll get flamed for it.
Windows is the last operating system I'd associate with 'super computer', in any interpretation of the phrase. It's a good jack-of-all-trades platform, but I can't see running bloated code, particularly using the CLR. Maybe it's a completely different operation system than we see, as in 'only the kernel', without all the plug-and-play, DRM, and annoying as hell code which throws requestors up while your typing (to steal keystrokes and disappear to do The Bob knows what with your inadvertent instruction.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You can make a turtle fly at speeds breaking the sound barrier aswell.
Is the turtle designed for that?
Yes.
Is it capable of that?
It's in the Top500 list, isn't it? If it wasn't capable, it wouldn't be doing it. Simple as that.
Please answer those questions
Just did.
So, basically, you implied Windows isn't good enough to run as a Top500 server, someone pointed out that it already does, and now you're defending it by saying, "Even though it is, it's still not good enough?"
This kind of crap really makes the community look immature.