Pay-per-Use Supercomputing for the Masses

By DE Editors

Interactive Supercomputing, Inc. (ISC; Waltham, MA) launched a high-performance computing (HPC) software service for engineers, scientists, and analysts who have technical computing applications that will benefit from parallel processing, but who don't have access to high performance, multiprocessor hardware.

Star-P On-Demand combines high performance, multiprocessor hardware, and a parallel computing software platform in a single, on-demand solution, allowing the user to easily connect to a high performance system from their desktop. As pay-per-use computing resource that delivers interactive parallel computing power to desktop computer users, Star-P On-Demand enables researchers to easily code algorithms and models remotely on their desktops using popular high-level languages like MATLAB, and Python, automatically transforming the programs to run on multicore and multiprocessor hardware. The Star-P software eliminates the need to re-program the applications in complex languages such as C, FORTRAN, or MPI (message passing interface) in order to run on Tsunamic Technologies' Linux cluster.

Star-P enables faster prototyping and problem solving across a range of security, intelligence, manufacturing, energy, biomedical, financial, and scientific research applications. Users can access Star-P On-Demand for a test or trial period using a 20 CPU-hour trial account. They can then access the service in a pay-as-you-go mode for less then $3.00 U.S. per CPU-hour for further development, or they can purchase monthly packages of core hours at discount pricing.

For more information about Star-P On-Demand, visit ISC.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.