Q: What is the OpenSolaris HPC Distro?
A: The OpenSolaris HPC Distro is a bundling of HPC tools and applications with the OpenSolaris operating system to provide a prepackaged, ready-to-go HPC environment.
Q: How does the HPC Distro work?
A: The "distro" actually has two flavors. The HPC developer starter kit is a bundle of HPC tools relevant to developers, but without the OpenSolaris OS included. The tools in the developer starter kit are integrated together to make it as easy as possible to get started and as productive and possible once you're going. The developer starter kit supports both the OpenSolaris and Solaris 10 operating systems.The OpenSolaris HPC distro itself is a broader bundling of tools, including the OpenSolaris operating system. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to deploy a complete HPC cluster running on the OpenSolaris OS. Again, the included tools are integrated to make the deployment experience as seamless as possible.
Q: What are the benefits to the HPC Developer Starter Kit's integrated development environment?
A: The HPC developer starter kit is built around the popular Sun Studio IDE, which is based on the award-winning NetBeans IDE. Sun Studio 12 software is the premier development environment for the Solaris OS. It's optimizing C, C++ and Fortran compilers, combined with the world-class, Netbeans-based IDE and other performance tools, Sun Studio 12 software delivers outstanding performance for single and multithreaded application development on the latest Sun hardware platforms.Further, Sun Studio 12 delivers a solid toolset to assist developers in migrating their existing, single-thread applications to multithreaded applications to take advantage of the latest multi-core systems available today and in the future. With autoparallelization, thread analyzer, thread-aware debugger and performance analysis tools, developers can more easily migrate and optimize their applications to these new systems.
On top of that solid foundation, the HPC developer starter kit adds an integrated set of developer tools and components specifically targeted at the HPC developer. Put it all together and you have the most complete and integrated HPC developer environment for Solaris and OpenSolaris platforms available.
Q: Which operating systems does the HPC Distro support?
A: The OpenSolaris HPC Distro will include the OpenSolaris operating system, but an unbundled version will also be made available that supports the Solaris 10 operating environment. The HPC developer starter kit will support both the OpenSolaris and Solaris 10 operating systems.
Q: What are the benefits to using the HPC Distro in conjunction with the Solaris 10 OS?
A: Users and administrators of systems running the Solaris 10 OS will benefit from the OpenSolaris HPC Distro in much the same way as users and administrators of systems running the OpenSolaris OS. The complete, integrated set of tools for developers and administrators will reduce the time to get started and increase productivity.
Q: How can I become an HPC Distro user?
A: The first release of the HPC developer starter kit will be available as a preview by the beginning of June. Check back then for a download link. The OpenSolaris HPC Distro will come later.
Q: What support options does Sun provide for the HPC Distro?
A: Good question! The OpenSolaris HPC Distro will be a supported offering from Sun, but we're still in the process of hammering out the details of how the support offering with work. Check back later for more details.
Q: Does Sun offer training on the HPC Distro?
A: Sun currently offers training on the individual components that compose the OpenSolaris HPC Distro. We do plan to offer training around the complete stack, but we cannot share any details at this time. Please check back later.
Q: How can I become an active participant in the HPC Distro Stack community?
A: Register and participate!