Microsoft creating Windows for supercomputers

Microsoft has launched an effort to produce a version of Windows for high-performance computing, a move seen as a direct attack on a Linux stronghold.

High-performance computing once required massive, expensive, exotic machines from companies such as Cray, but the field is being remade by the arrival of clusters of low-end machines. While the trend could be considered an opportunity for Microsoft, which has long been the leading operating-system company, Linux has actually become the favored software used on these clusters.

"The majority of people doing high-performance computing are a lot more comfortable and efficient inside a Unix environment," a category that includes Linux, the SDSC's Papadopoulos said. To convince people to invest the time and money to switch, Microsoft will have to offer something much better, he said.

Dozens of machines in a list of the 500 fastest supercomputers run Linux, including five of the top 10. Only two on the list are identified as Windows machines.