High Performance Computing Clusters solve some of the most challenging computational problems encountered today in the areas of scientific research, financial analytics, computer-aided engineering and digital content management. Microsoft® Windows® HPC Server 2008 for SGI® Altix® XE and Cloudrack X2 clusters enables customers to choose the operating system for solving their compute-intensive problems - and the product which also best fits into their computational environment.

Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 (HPCS) on SGI clusters brings the Windows ease of deployment and manageability to HPC and enables easy integration with existing Microsoft infrastructure. The winning combination of SGI clusters and HPCS means users can maintain a results-based focus with their HPC projects, rather than devoting valuable time to mastering intricacies and complexities of building and managing cluster environments.

Researchers and scientists who today are using workstations to compute and solve problems often struggle with an unacceptably long time to solution, which increases steadily with the complexity of problems being solved. Moving to a cluster can dramatically reduce time to solution by significantly increasing the compute resource available for these tasks. For users who are already familiar with the Windows environment, introducing Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 into the HPC environment is a natural step toward increasing productivity without the need for additional training. SGI clusters with HPCS provide customers with a powerful cluster solution that seamlessly integrates with their existing Windows infrastructure.

HPCS is based on Windows Server® 2008, x64. It offers scalable provisioning through Windows Deployment Services, sophisticated job scheduling capabilities across the cluster, and a faster, standards-based Microsoft Message Passing interface (MS-MPI) that includes the new NetworkDirect technology. HPCS is compatible with other Microsoft applications to boost HPC productivity and improve the overall end-user experience. This includes collaboration and workflow orchestration through Microsoft Office® SharePoint® Server, as well as sophisticated management capabilities by integration with Microsoft System Center solutions.

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