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Unholy Matrimony? Microsoft and Cray

Posted by timothy on from the sick-of-so-called-supercomputers-running-linux dept.

fetusbear writes with a ZDNet story that says "'Microsoft and Cray are set to unveil on September 16 the Cray CX1, a compact supercomputer running Windows HPC Server 2008. The pair is expected to tout the new offering as "the most affordable supercomputer Cray has ever offered," with pricing starting at $25,000.' Although this would be the lowest cost hardware ever offered by Cray, it would also be the most expensive desktop ever offered by Microsoft."

5 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. This thing... by kidde_valind · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is not actually a "desktop". It's not even "a" computer. It's a cluster, and Cray could definately do better than this. Especially considering Unisys has built computers (no, not clusters) with a lot of processors a long time, many of them Windows Capable. So... Cray builds a cluster, Microsoft gets some free ad space for HPC Server. Hooray!

    1. Re:This thing... by Fishbulb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes Cray could do better, but the Cray of today is not the Cray of yesterday.

      It's as close to 'in-name-only' as you can get, considering the number of times it's been bought off and fleeced.

  2. Poor Seymour by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The man is spinning in his grave!
    Just let Cray pass into history.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  3. Re:What's the frame rate and resolution? by tjstork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like the linux kernel developers are any better...every OS maker is greedy about increased CPU power. I first ran Linux in 1995 and it isn't that much faster now.

    Well, I guess if you want to go back to pine for mail, it might be pretty quick.

    --
    This is my sig.
  4. Re:What's the frame rate and resolution? by cduffy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like the linux kernel developers are any better...every OS maker is greedy about increased CPU power. I first ran Linux in 1995 and it isn't that much faster now.

    Given that the Linux kernel is used in embedded systems with a tiny fraction of your desktop's RAM and CPU power, I'd call it pretty darned safe that the kernel isn't your problem. It's gotten somewhat bigger -- which is why 2.2 and 2.4 kernels are still in use in smaller environments -- but on any system with over 100MB of RAM, you're not going to notice.

    Now, if you want to complain about application developers taking advantage of hardware resources (inclusive of the GNOME and KDE folks, browser developers, and the like), feel free.