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The June 2013 Top500 supercomputer list is in, and 476 of the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world run Linux. Whether you measure supercomputing by number of systems or overall performance, Linux rules. (Image: Top500)Is that good enough for you? While Linux fans and critics obsess about Linux's failure to sweep Windows off the desktop, they're ignoring that Linux is winning everywhere else, and that when it comes to the highest of high-end computing, Linux rules.Driving the point home, the top 10 fastest supercomputers all run Linux of one sort or the other. You have to go the way...

Microsoft has formed a new group to better its share of the market for the most powerful computers in the world. Its plan of attack: make the machines easier to use. On Monday, Microsoft said it has created an effort called the Technical Computing Initiative focused on the field of high-performance computing, in which dozens to thousands of PCs are lashed together to jointly perform complex calculations beyond the capacity of individual machines. Microsoft has quietly staffed up the group with several hundred employees and is launching a marketing push with a new website touting trends in high-performance computing. While...

Concealed Handgun Permit Holders Kill 7 Police, 44 Private Citizens Over Two-Year Period 31 Incidents Result in Criminal Charges or Suicide of Concealed Handgun Permit Holder Washington, DC--Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens in 31 incidents during the period May 2007 through April 2009 according to a new study (http://www.vpc.org/studies/ccw2009.pdf) released today by the Violence Policy Center (VPC). The release of the study comes as the U.S. Senate is expected to take up today--Monday, July 20--an amendment to the defense authorization bill (S. 1390) that would create a de facto national concealed...

In a move that could have broad implications for the high-performance computing (HPC) market, Intel and Cray have announced a broad collaboration that will see engineers from the two companies work together on future products and projects.With the first Intel-Cray products appearing in the 2010-2011 timeframe, it's clear that three Intel technologies have caught Cray's eye: the native 32nm Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) scheme, and the forthcoming discrete, x86-based graphics product, codenamed Larrabee. Cray will plug all of these components into its SeaStar interconnect fabric, and when combined with Cray Linux they'll make for an HPC and...

Microsoft's charge into the high performance computing game continues at pace. The software maker this week announced that its new cluster operating system - HPC Server 2008 - based on Windows Server 2008 will ship next Summer. In addition, the code dandy has fired up a Parallel Computing Initiative to develop more parallelized software for both HPC and business users. Microsoft? HPC? Surely, we jest. But, no, we mean it. Microsoft has shown some nice gains in a market dominated by Linux. Six Windows-based systems made their way onto the most recent Top500 supercomputer list. In addition, Microsoft claims loads...

Microsoft Windows is emerging as an acceptable operating system for high-performance computing (HPC) clusters in place of Linux, lowering the bar for entry into that space, according to some analysts and major vendors. In 2006, Microsoft announced the release of Windows Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003, marking the company's first attempt at an operating system for HPC applications. Industry observers say that Windows CCS has been well accepted, particularly for small computing clusters. Vendors have jumped on the Windows CCS bandwagon, including HP, which recently extended a multimillion-dollar investment agreement with Microsoft to drive high-performance computing into the mass market...

The next solar activity cycle will be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the previous one, and up to a year late in arriving, according to a breakthrough forecast by Dr. Mausumi Dikpati and colleagues at the (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. The scientists made the first "solar climate" forecast using a combination of groundbreaking observations of the solar interior from space and computer simulation. and the National Science Foundation funded the research.

Microsoft is preparing to take on Linux in a battle over price and performance, according to John Borozan, product manager for the forthcoming Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (WCCS) software. WCCS is a new version of Windows designed for high-performance computing (HPC) applications, such as those used for geological exploration, but it will also have a valuable role to play working with Excel spreadsheets.WCCS will go on sale in the summer. Borozan said the price has not yet been set but will be very competitive against Linux rivals. Borozan added that 80 percent of existing HPC systems use x86 chips...