PHYSICS

Critical Software announces WMPI II version 2.3.0 with support for Intel Cluster Tools and the DDT debugger along with significant price reductions -- Critical Software Inc, San Jose, CA, and Coimbra, Portugal, announce the release of the fastest and most complete WMPI II version ever, which includes support for Intel Cluster Tools and the Distributed Debugging Tool (DDT) from Streamline Computing. After releasing WMPI II for Linux clusters in the 1st quarter of 2004, Critical Software became the first commercial organization in the world to offer a full MPI-2 compliant implementation for general-purpose, heterogeneous Windows and Linux clusters of PC's worldwide. Now Critical Software increases it's WMPI II product features, by adding support for popular Linux profiling and debugging tools. Intel Cluster Tools, including Intel Trace Analyzer and Intel Trace Collector (formerly marketed as Vampir and VampirTrace) from Intel Corporation, allow users to graphically analyse runtime event traces produced by high-performance applications written using WMPI II. Streamline Computing's Distributed Debugging Tool (DDT) is one of the most user-friendly graphical parallel debuggers on the market. DDT has been designed to make debugging even the most complex parallel solutions easier, faster and more efficient. Critical Software's HPC Division has invested significant effort into optimising the performance of this release. This has resulted in LINPACK benchmark scores, which show WMPI II performing over 40% faster than MPICH on Windows clusters and some NAS Parallel Benchmarks with scores over 4 times higher. The company has also adopted, starting from this month, significant price reductions for the whole WMPI family of products. "One of our main objectives is to allow the MPI community in general, including R&D institutions, Universities and commercial organizations, to access one of the top, industry-strength, full MPI-2 implementations in the market," said Peter Tyndale, Business Development Manager for the HPC Division of Critical Software. "This favourable and more competitive pricing, along with support for popular Linux tools, will also encourage and increase WMPI II awareness on other platforms and communities. We have always had a strong Windows following but we're keen to extend our customer base to include the Linux community," he added. Along with this release, Critical Software has recently closed agreements and has been collaborating with several major organizations in the HPC area worldwide. Critical Software is proud to be part of the IBM Departmental Supercomputing Solution initiative, has recently joined the SUN Grid Computing HPTC Alliance program and is gearing towards partnering with other major Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) dedicated to cluster technologies and parallel computing. WMPI II for Windows and Linux is the high-end member of Critical Software's suite of middleware products for HPC, which include already, the widely known, and used WMPI (based on version 1.2 of the standard), Patent MPI and WMX, a fault-tolerant MPI-like message passing implementation. Existing HPC middleware products - WMPI and Patent MPI - have achieved high recognition among the HPC community in the past, and are being used by a wealth of customers in the telecom, defense, aeronautics, finance, automotive, and energy industries. Companies where Critical Software middleware runs include Deutsche Telekom, IBM, Landmark Graphics, British Aerospace, Chevron-Texaco, Hitachi, BP Amoco, among many others. 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 II features, limited to 4 CPU's for 40 days. The company also provides a wide range of support, consulting, and training services for WMPI II. Finally, the company roadmap includes the availability of an IA-64 version for the 3rd quarter of 2004 (AMD64 is already available), and the support for Infiniband and Myrinet interconnectors for the 4th quarter of 2004. 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. The takeover of Patent MPI from Genias Gmbh in 2001, enhanced its offer in the HPC middleware market and enabled the company to diversify its markets.