The United Computer Science Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has ported the portable batch system PBS Torque to the Windows platform. PBS Torque is one of the most popular software solutions used for cluster computing, BelTA learned from Anatoly Krishtofik, Executive Director of the Union State program SKIF-GRID.

The portable batch system had been developed by NASA and the Livermore National Lab for defense and security supercomputing. It allows multiple user access to cluster computing solutions based on the operating systems Unix and Linux. Later on PBS Torque went open source.

The ported software has been tested in Belarus and the USA. It is now part of PBS Torque 2.5 release, which is stored by the company Cluster Resources, said Anatoly Krishtofik.

The ported software will enable Belarusian users to use supercomputing resources not only via Unix and Linux but also via the world's most popular OS Windows.

The project has been accomplished as part of the Union State program SKIF-GRID and the project meant to create resource centers of Belarus' national supercomputing grid.

Anatoly Krishtofik reminded that the United Computer Science Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus had deployed the first pilot section of the national supercomputing grid. It now includes computer resources of the United Energy and Nuclear Research Institute Sosny, the Belarusian State University, the Belarusian National Technical University, the Grodno State University, two small clusters deployed at industrial enterprises. In the future the grid is supposed to grow larger to unite computing resources of Belarus' leading research institutions.

The development of the supercomputing grid is an important step in the innovation development of the country. Part of the grid, Belarusian companies will not have to buy expensive software and hardware to design and model complicated products, replace expensive live tests with virtual ones, create new nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, study human genes, develop new medications, process x-ray shots of patients with oncological diseases and other goals.