GOVERNMENT

Critical Software announces the release of WMPI version 1.6 which, for the first time, supports Linux-based operating systems. With the release of WMPI version 1.6, the company increases its product offering and platform availability for its MPI-1.2 compliant implementation. "We have been focusing our R&D efforts on enhancing our MPI-2 implementation, WMPI II, for several years and decided it was time to allow WMPI users to take advantage of these same enhancements," said Peter Tyndale, HPC Business Development Manager for Critical Software. "So WMPI is now founded on the same code base as WMPI II. This means that, as well as supporting Linux, WMPI also runs on 64 bit AMD processors, integrates with Linux profiling and debugging tools, has easier to use installation procedures and improved performance and robustness. These additional benefits, when combined with our professional technical support and recently reduced pricing, make for a very competitive MPI-1.2 solution." The Linux profiling and debugging tools supported by WMPI include: Intel Cluster Tools (formerly Vampir), and Streamline Computing's Distributed Debugging Tool (DDT). Critical Software partnered recently with Infinicon Systems - a world-class leading provider of I/O virtualization and clustering services for Infiniband-based clusters - by joining the Infinicon's I3 Program. Through this ISV initiative, Critical's HPC division will be able to incorporate their high-performance WMPI II implementation into Infinicon's software stack, taking advantage of the RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) architecture of their high-speed interconnectors to create an extremely low latency and high bandwidth message-passing environment. The I3 Program allows joint development, support and marketing between the two companies, strengthening both their positions in the HPC space. This effort will allow end-users to harness the superior performance offered by Infinicon's fabrics, known to be the most advanced in the Infiniband market. WMPI for Windows and Linux is the entry-level product of Critical Software's suite of middleware products for HPC, which includes WMPI II (based on version 2 of the standard), Patent MPI and WMX, a fault-tolerant MPI-like message passing implementation. Critical Software is providing a trial version of the software on its web site at http://www.criticalsoftware.com/hpc. The trial version provides a preview of all WMPI features, limited to 4 CPU's for 40 days. The company also provides a wide range of support, consulting, and training services for the whole range of WMPI products. Critical Software Inc, San Jose, California, and Coimbra, Portugal, is a leading provider of middleware for High-Performance Computing. The company develops dependable solutions and technologies for mission and business critical systems where performance plays a key role. The company has grown from 3 to 75 engineers from 1998 to 2004, dedicated to solutions engineering and product development in several sectors and markets. Critical Software HPC business started in the year 2000, with the release of the entry-level WMPI product, providing an MPI-1.2 implementation for Windows clusters. Critical Software's MPI middleware is used worldwide to power hundreds of compute intensive applications in industry and academia. Continuous investment in R&D has enabled Critical to stay ahead of the competition with WMPI II being the only commercially available MPI-2 implementation for Windows clusters. Linux support has been added to provide a comprehensive solution for parallel processing across COTS clusters.