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June 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Windows as the new high performance OS?
I spent some time yesterday with Nick McGrath, Director of Platform Strategy at Microsoft. Nick and I first met at LinuxWorld UK a year or two ago - we were on a panel together. I appreciated Nick's candor then, and was very glad to meet him again at OSBC London.
Nick mentioned something to me that came as a complete shock: Windows HPC. I did some consulting for Linux Networx 2-3 years ago, and got to know the HPC (High performance computing) market reasonably well. When you think "HPC," you should think of supercomputing clusters at national laboratories, number crunching clusters doing portfolio optimization at large financial institutions, and oil and gas companies looking for ways to fill those trendy Prius hybrids. This is not wimpy computing. It's the most demanding computing anyone does, anywhere. Microsoft has set up a High Performance Computing Centre at Southhampton University to help build out the product. (It's being developed in the UK.)
All of which makes it very interesting that Windows is now playing in this market. Whatever your views on Windows - Blue Screen of Death and what-not - no one runs crash-prone software in HPC environments. If Microsoft proves itself here, it should be able to effectively shelve its history of crash-prone software. In addition, the work it does in HPC should trickle down to the desktop, making the software run faster, with fewer crashes. (XP has largely solved that issue, anyway.) The one thing HPC won't necessarily help Microsoft with is security - performance is king in HPC, not necessarily security.
This is an area that everyone in the Linux community should watch closely. If Microsoft pulls this off, it will be very telling for the company's quality and strategy going forward. You can't fool a national laboratory with good marketing - these guys are marketing immune. They just want the best system, and pay top dollar for it. If Microsoft can convince them, there's something real in the product.
Posted by Matt Asay on June 28, 2006 02:16 AM
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Its not true to say that "these guys are marketing immune".
The companies that sell HPC systems realised long ago that ordinary advertising doesn't have any real effect on their sales in the area, so they use their "advertising" revenue in more creative ways; research agreements, PhD sponsorships, staff funding, "free" hardware etc.
You can be sure that Southampton aren't doing all that work on Microsoft's HPC solution for nothing (and nor should they - good luck to them for securing the funding).
Posted by: Phillip Fayers at June 28, 2006 05:13 AMFor more, see Greg's Q&A here: http://weblog.infoworld.com/gridmeter/archives/2006/06/digging_deeper_3.html
Posted by: Patrick at June 28, 2006 06:11 AMIf you load no graphics or sound drivers, no malware/anti-malware, and no MS applications, Windows may indeed run reliably. But is that scenario relevant to the desktop?
Posted by: Wes Felter at June 28, 2006 03:53 PMHPC isn't just national labs anymore, and Microsoft won't be selling to traditional HPC customers. Take a look at what Linux Networx is selling now (supercomputers tuned for apps, TCO, and Total Application Throughput, rather than Flops and Linpacks). Customers for these kinds of supercomputers are much closer to the Microsoft mainstream than traditional HPC customers.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 28, 2006 08:57 PM"If Microsoft proves itself," "if Microsoft pulls this off"
Two VERY big ifs.
Microsoft has failed to deliver on every OS-related promise they've made since at least Win95, and now they are failing to deliver on product. Them there ifs are bigger than ever.
Posted by: Jeff Rollin at June 30, 2006 07:59 AM"If Microsoft proves itself," "if Microsoft pulls this off"
Two VERY big ifs.
Microsoft has failed to deliver on every OS-related promise they've made since at least Win95, and now they are failing to deliver on product. Them there ifs are bigger than ever.
Posted by: Jeff Rollin at June 30, 2006 09:35 AM
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