SCIENCE

Cray has announced that the new Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 operating system is now available on the Cray CX1 line of deskside supercomputers, including the Cray CX1 and the Cray CX1-iWS systems. The Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 operating system features a familiar environment and a rich tool-set allowing users of Cray CX1 systems to apply powerful, high performance computing (HPC) resources to their scientific challenges without sacrificing ease-of-use computing.

"We designed the Cray CX1 systems to be easy to use, and offering a HPC product that combines the computational power of a cluster with the familiarity of the Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 operating system gives more researchers, developers and scientists access to Cray systems," said Barry Bolding, vice president of Cray's products division. "We are pleased to be working with Microsoft to extend HPC beyond the data center through the powerful combination of the Cray CX1 line and the Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 operating system."

"Companies such as Cray are an essential part of making high performance computing more broadly available and accessible," said Bill Hamilton, director of technical computing at Microsoft Corp. "The combination of the Cray CX1 line and Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 delivers HPC capabilities to an expanded customer base that sees the value in a deskside HPC system that is both powerful and easy to use."

First introduced in September 2008, the Cray CX1 line of deskside supercomputers is designed from the ground up to provide superior performance, functionality and affordability for individuals and departmental workgroups who want to harness the compute power of an HPC cluster. Equipped with state-of-the-art visualization and storage capabilities, the Cray CX1 systems deliver performance leadership across a broad range of applications -- all in a compact, easy-to-use, deskside system.