ACADEMIA

Platform Computing today announced Platform Rocks 4.0, the latest version of the company's industry-leading solution for the intuitive deployment and management of large-scale Linux clusters. With Platform Rocks 4.0 users now have more choice and flexibility in their hardware and software decisions, with the ability to support products from multiple vendors. In addition, cluster management has been greatly enhanced with new tools for simplified configuration and maintenance. Still in the first year of its initial release, Platform Rocks has quickly assumed a market leading position in cluster management solutions. Powering over one third of the world's known Rocks Clusters; 7 of the 9 Rocks clusters in the Supercomputing Top 500; the largest Rocks cluster and the fastest Gigabit Ethernet cluster, Platform continues to blaze a trail of innovation and ease of use with release Platform Rocks 4.0. "Standardizing and simplifying all aspects of high-performance clusters is a key tenet of Dell's approach to HPCC and helps reduce the cost of advanced computing for customers," said Reza Rooholamini, PhD., Director, Enterprise Solutions Engineering, Dell. "The availability of Platform Rocks software on Dell's standards-based HPCC configurations further delivers on this tenet by simplifying for customers the installation, management and operation of applications in small to large Linux-based computing infrastructures." New features in Platform Rocks 4.0 include: -- The ability to add/remove Rocks Rolls after cluster installation, eliminating the need for time and resource-intensive front-end cluster installation -- User-defined update schedules to ensure proper cluster synchronization while simplifying the overall administration of a Rocks cluster -- A cluster database population tool that allows cluster administrators to pre-configure Rocks with the necessary information for all nodes of a cluster before installation, facilitating new deployments or existing cluster maintenance. -- Inclusion of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, the latest version of Red Hat's Linux operating systems; and -- Support for Silicon Graphics' hardware (the SGI Altix 1350 cluster of the SGI Altix 350 server), along with Intel's IA64 (Itanium2) processor "Since the launch of Platform Rocks in late 2004, we have experienced tremendous success and market adoption, with the world's largest and most powerful cluster users choosing our solutions," said Robert Shecterle, Vice President, Marketing, Platform Computing. "With a large and rapidly expanding customer base, the market is providing a clear indicator that we have the optimal solution for cluster management. Now, with its new features and continued support by industry leading partners such as Dell, Platform Rocks 4.0 promises to help customers more effectively manage high performance computing clusters while increasing performance and productivity." Pricing and Availability Platform Rocks 4.0 will be available in summer 2005 from leading partners, including Dell and SGI, as well as at www.platform.com/rocks. Additionally, customers have the option to purchase Annual Cluster Care, a package of value added services (including expert 24/7 support, periodic upgrades, and patches). Annual Cluster Care is priced on a per node basis.