Microsoft last week disclosed more details of its plans to offer a version of Windows for high-performance computing (HPC).

The software giant said it intends to build an operating system for "off-the-shelf clusters" that could be used by workgroups to solve a wide range of problems, taking HPC out of the niche of centralised departments running custom code. Windows for HPC could be available from as early as next summer, it added.

So far, Microsoft has largely stayed clear of providing hard details of its Windows HPC schemes, but in an exclusive interview with IT Week, the firm said it plans a version of Windows with an integrated message passing interface, job scheduling and cluster resource management.

Microsoft will aim mostly at the 64-node and below market and hopes to offer a platform for server cluster packages costing from about $150,000 (£81,000) for 16-node solutions. That level of price could make HPC clusters more appealing for tasks such as financial risk analysis and rendering of video.

"We see the opportunity as personal supercomputers and we see the volume as 64-node, 128-node and below systems," said Greg Rankich, a three-and-a-half year veteran of the firm's HPC effort. "As hardware becomes cheaper, more researchers will want to have their own clusters."

Rankich acknowledged that Microsoft would need to delete features from Windows for HPC but added that storage management, Active Directory and systems management tools would be a boon in HPC, as would database tools. "There's a huge opportunity to build tools to allow people to move from flat-file to intelligent data storage," he commented.

Microsoft is targeting HPC at Intel EM64T and AMD Opteron 64bit-extended processors and a commercial release could arrive at the early side of its public schedule. A beta release or software developer kit is scheduled for November in time for the Supercomputing 2004 conference in Pittsburgh, and the target for the commercial release is summer or early autumn next year. Microsoft had previously only announced that a release was scheduled for the second half of 2005.

Rankich said that increased commercialisation and standardisation of HPC applications made it timely to create a version of Windows for the sector. Microsoft is also talking to open-source developers about porting key applications to Windows.