Microsoft releases near-final beta of HPC Server 2008
Microsoft Wednesday said it plans to release at the end of the month another beta of its Windows HPC Server 2008 and that the final version will ship by year-end.
The beta is the first release candidate (RC), which Microsoft says is feature complete. An RC is a final beta before the code is considered finished. Microsoft officials said they plan to have one more RC before development is complete.
Microsoft made the announcement at the start of the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany, where it also placed for the first time in the Top 25 of the world's largest supercomputers. Windows High Performance Computing (HPC) Server 2008 is Microsoft's entry into the battle with Linux to provide platforms for research and other compute-intensive workloads. Linux is clearly the dominant player in the market with Microsoft battling to prove its mettle.
