IBM is joining Hewlett- Packard to offer Microsofts Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 for its high-performance computer products.
The partnership was presaged by IBMs February announcement that it would start supporting Microsofts Compute Cluster, and IBM said the software suite would now start shipping with its System Cluster 1350.
IBM, whose products dominated the top 10 list of worlds fastest supercomputers when the list was announced this week at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany, is looking to expand its cluster and HPC offering to more enterprise and midmarket companies. At the same time, Microsoft is looking to break into a field – HPC – that has long been dominated by Linux.
In addition to its relationships with IBM and HP, Microsoft signed an agreement earlier this year with Silicon Graphics to offer Windows Compute Cluster with its HPC products.
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Although IBM, which is headquartered in Armonk, N.Y., will now begin to offer Windows with its System Cluster 1350, the company will continue to support Linux. On Wednesday, IBM also announced that it will now also support Novells SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with its cluster products.
IBM also announced that it was expanding the hardware it is offering with its cluster to include more quad-core Intel Xeon processors as well as dual-core chips from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. This includes giving customers the option of selecting additional servers from both its BladeCenter and System x lines.
The Systems Cluster will also include some additional storage options, including the companys System Storage DS3400 SAS/SATA (Serial Attached SCSI/Serial ATA) Fiber Channel Host Interface, DS3200 SAS Host Interface and the EXP 3000 (SAS/SATA). IBM also is offering Ethernet and InfiniBand switches from Cisco, SMC and Voltaire.
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