[1] This version of the server software is claimed to efficiently scale to thousands of cores.
It includes features unique to HPC workloads: a new high-speed NetworkDirect RDMA, highly efficient and scalable cluster management tools, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) job scheduler, an MPI library based on open-source MPICH2,[2] and cluster interoperability through standards such as the High Performance Computing Basic Profile (HPCBP) specification produced by the Open Grid Forum (OGF).
[3] In June 2008, a system built collaboratively with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Microsoft ranked #23 on the TOP500 list, a ranking of the world's fastest supercomputers, with a LINPACK score of 68.5 teraflops.
The NCSA supercomputer uses both Windows Server HPC and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
HPC Pack 2012 can be installed on top of any Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter.