Stories about: Platform Computing

Quiz time. Get out your No. 2 computers and answer the following question: For the fastest and most reliable high-end computing for your enterprise, will your operating system be 1) Linux, 2) Solaris, 3) OpenVMS or 4) Windows?

Microsoft Monday said it would ship Windows HPC Server 2008 on November 1 with designs on challenging Linux for supplying high-performance computers and specifically taking aim at ailing Wall Street customers.

Today's IT departments need to do more, with less budget. They need to rapidly develop and deploy new applications. They need to build a flexible infrastructure--one that can rapidly adjust to the needs of the business. There are many key benefits inherent in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Startup Evergrid Tuesday unveiled its virtualization platform designed to provide application reliability on clusters of Linux servers.

Fans of cross-platform computing and the "write-once-run-anywhere" concept of applications and software will want to take a look at LINA. The open source software company plans to debut its eponymous (but note the capitalisation) LINA platform this month.

Microsoft Tuesday released Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, its first high-performance operating system.

IBM announced the first application vendors -- SAS Institute and Absoft -- to support its Grid and Grow bundle of software, hardware and services Tuesday. Big Blue first unveiled the bundle two months ago positioning it as a starter pack for midsize and large companies wanting to move into grid computing. IBM is now looking to extend the offering in a variety of ways both in terms of targeted users and vendor support.

Platform Computing wants to make the foundation on which enterprise computing grids are built. At the LinuxWorld show in San Francisco on Monday, the company began discussing a new platform it's developing to offer customers a centralised management system for disparate applications running across an enterprise grid.

Silicon Graphics (SGI) on Monday plans to unveil a new product line designed to make it easier for users with medium-sized computing needs to set up clusters of the Mountain View, California, company's Altix 350 servers.

As more companies explore the possibility of adding supercomputers to their IT stables, prices of the machines continue to fall even as their computing power and flexibility for business use is growing.

IBM has launched a new grid-based product -- the IBM Grid Offering for Engineering Design: Clash Analysis in Automotive, Aerospace and Defense -- to help automotive and aerospace companies improve the quality of their products and get them to market faster.