Comments on: HPC Server 2008 job startup experiences http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/08/hpc-server-2008-job-startup-experiences/ HPC News Without the Noise for Supercomputing Professionals | insideHPC Fri, 03 May 2013 04:44:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Rich Hickey http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/08/hpc-server-2008-job-startup-experiences/#comment-48353 Rich Hickey Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:59:44 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/2008/04/08/hpc-server-2008-job-startup-experiences/#comment-48353 The first thing I thought was "Not In My Datacenter!!! What a farce, Windows HPC, ya not!" Then I got to thinking, am I really so pig headed and stubborn that I can't entertain the idea of a different OS besides a unix flavor in HPC? I'm not all agains Window$. Heck, I have family members that work for Microsoft, can you spell employee discount?! But the idea of windows bloatware being an effective HPC variant? I'm still not too sure about it. I decided to watch the video, which wasn't all that exciting really. But then I started poking around and checked out the interview with Ryan Waite. (I linked it here, hope you don't mind John.) http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?showPlaylist=true&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0d50ce6d-8767-4279-89c5-b1866fc3ecb8 One of the things I've found about Microsoft, whether you love em or hate em, you have to admit, they hire some pretty bright folks. It's hard to condemn a project like Compute Cluster 2008 after listening to Ryan talk about the developement process. It really sounds like they did a good job of looking at the HPC market and how it currently works. He even mentions people being almost religious in their MPI stack choice. Hmmm... Anyone remember a SCALI discussion here not too long ago? :-) Also sounds like they did a lot of collaboration with Argon National Labs. More bright folks down there. So, in short, ya to late now, I know. I'm not sold on the idea of Windows Compute Cluster, however I'd be interested in seeing more. Might be a good thing, might not. With a final thought. Microsoft has a TON of money to throw at any project they find interesting. Would that be a bad thing for HPC? It may be a windows variant, but it's money and talent added to the HPC arena. I'll shut up now. Rich The first thing I thought was “Not In My Datacenter!!! What a farce, Windows HPC, ya not!” Then I got to thinking, am I really so pig headed and stubborn that I can’t entertain the idea of a different OS besides a unix flavor in HPC? I’m not all agains Window$. Heck, I have family members that work for Microsoft, can you spell employee discount?! But the idea of windows bloatware being an effective HPC variant? I’m still not too sure about it.

I decided to watch the video, which wasn’t all that exciting really. But then I started poking around and checked out the interview with Ryan Waite. (I linked it here, hope you don’t mind John.)

http://soapbox.msn.com/video.aspx?showPlaylist=true&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0d50ce6d-8767-4279-89c5-b1866fc3ecb8

One of the things I’ve found about Microsoft, whether you love em or hate em, you have to admit, they hire some pretty bright folks. It’s hard to condemn a project like Compute Cluster 2008 after listening to Ryan talk about the developement process. It really sounds like they did a good job of looking at the HPC market and how it currently works. He even mentions people being almost religious in their MPI stack choice. Hmmm… Anyone remember a SCALI discussion here not too long ago? :-)

Also sounds like they did a lot of collaboration with Argon National Labs. More bright folks down there.

So, in short, ya to late now, I know. I’m not sold on the idea of Windows Compute Cluster, however I’d be interested in seeing more. Might be a good thing, might not.

With a final thought. Microsoft has a TON of money to throw at any project they find interesting. Would that be a bad thing for HPC? It may be a windows variant, but it’s money and talent added to the HPC arena.

I’ll shut up now.
Rich

]]>