Ferrari test drives Microsoft's HPC software

Microsoft this week wheeled out racing-car firm Ferrari as the latest big-name user of the software giant's Windows HPC Server 2008, launched late last month in New York.

Ferrari is using the Microsoft software alongside existing Linux-based, AMD Opteron, high-performance computing systems running Fluent applications for aerodynamics and engine modelling.

Windows HPC Server 2008 replaces Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, adding new scheduling, management tools, failover features and high-speed networking. Microsoft has already publicised the new product's use by Lloyds TSB, Boeing and Procter & Gamble.

Microsoft believes that Windows HPC Server 2008 can bring high-performance computing, a field dominated by Linux-based supercomputers, into the mainstream.

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