Today Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the company’s first product designed specifically for high-performance computing (HPC). With Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Microsoft aims to make it easier to create, integrate and operate HPC clusters within organizations, thereby expanding the technology beyond traditional supercomputing centers by bringing the value of computational clusters within reach of more people.

To understand the impact of today’s milestone, PressPass convened a roundtable of customers who have been test driving Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 in demanding applications, including biomedical research and scientific modeling. Providing their insight are:

• Ron Elber, professor of computer science at Cornell University
• John Michalakes, senior software engineer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.
• Matt Wortman, director of computational biology and IT at the Genome Research Institute, University of Cincinnati