Looking to drive corporate adoption of its high-performance computing version of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft on Monday introduced an SDK (software development kit) for developers alongside a name change for the product. Just months after confirming plans to join the supercomputing game, Redmond will use the spotlight of this week"s SC2004 supercomputing show in Pittsburgh to demonstrate the SDK and change the name from Windows Server 2003 HPC Edition to Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition.
The SDK, which provides tools and APIs for developers to build integrated, high-performance computing applications, will be released to select partners later this month. The Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition is expected to ship in the second half of 2005. A spokesperson for Microsoft said final pricing and packaging decisions have not yet been determined. Pricing for HPC (high-performance computing) products has been a bit of a challenge for many in the space because of budgetary constraints faced by research houses and other enterprises in the market for supercomputers.