Folks,
We are all sooooo technical!
It does not work that way....
Microsoft HPC will work IF the market wants the technology that they can supply. The answer is in market segments. And the Supercomputer market segment has been the science and engineering users of the last 30 years. It has not changed its market much. As technology got complex, the simulation market has grown some, but not to the extent of the word processing or spreadsheet market place or the home web access or gaming markets have grown over the same time period.
The Linux HPC market is on the market demand track from CDC -> Cray -> Vax -> Unix Workstation -> Linux . It has grown modestly, but not enormously. Dual CPUs have a bigger growth market and potentially the Microsoft HPC could help develop 4-way and 8-way processors as standard systems.
Technical issues will not maintain the market for cluster computing. Nor will technical best-of-breed win over uninterested markets. The past is full of superior technical solutions losing to market accessible good-enough solutions ( eg betamax vs VHS and token ring vs Ethernet .. and the beat goes on...)
To paraphrase, I know (some) Linux, Linux is a "friend" of mine, Windows is "No Linux" - but I doubt I am the market segment that Windows is "good enough" for.
So please desist discussing technical superiority. Technical issues are not the key issue in market segment growth of HPCs. So lets see who wants CPU power with windows integration and discover how big that market is.
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Sincerely,
Tom Pierce
Bldg 7/ Rm 207D - Spring House, PA
215-641-7475 - Office
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