Microsoft Releases Computational Cluster Technical Preview To olkit

[JParker at coinstar.com]

G'Day !

But are these apps compiled to run on a cluster (ie true parallel processing )
and not shared memory SMP ?  Or is the cluster just fault tolerant (multiple
identical nodes for fall-over redundency) ?

I can't think of very many shrink wrap apps that are optimized to run on a
Beowulf.

cheers,
Jim Parker

Sailboat racing is not a matter of life and death ....  It is far more important
than that !!!


                                                                                                                                      
                    John Casu                                                                                                         
                    <casuj at valinux.        To:     Omri Schwarz <omri at NMR.MGH.Harvard.EDU>                                            
                    com>                   cc:     "Mattson, Timothy G" <timothy.g.mattson at intel.com>, "'Schilling, Richard'"         
                    Sent by:               <RSchilling at affiliatedhealth.org>, beowulf at beowulf.org                                     
                    beowulf-admin at b        Subject:     Re: Microsoft Releases Computational Cluster Technical Preview To olkit       
                    eowulf.org                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                      
                    02/15/01 10:59                                                                                                    
                    PM                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                      



>
> On Tue, 13 Feb 2001, Mattson, Timothy G wrote:
>
> > Richard,
> >
> > Please try not to be so negative.  I was involved with producing the
> > "microsoft clustering solution", and I assure you, its much more than you
> > suggested.
>
>
> So far the only advantage mentioned
> is the faster C compilers available
> in the MS cluster.
>

there is one other advantage windows has over Linux, and that is the
availability of
real life commercial applications.

Now most of us on this mailing list roll our own apps, but it's pretty clear
that
if you wanted to build a compute farm for running renders from 3D StudioMax or
Maya,
or you wanted to run a bunch of optimization cases in Pro/Mechanica or Cadence
then,
for the most part, Linux isn't a real option.

This advantage is the one we have to deal with, since it trumps all the others.
You can bet your ass that Microsoft understands this profoundly, and will beat
us over
the head with it.


john.


_______________________________________________
Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org
To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit
http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf