In addition to evaluating Microsoft’s Windows Cluster Edition in traditional HPC applications, TACC will be focusing it’s participation in the Microsoft Technical Computing Initiative (TCI) on the use of relational database technology, specifically SQL Server in science and engineering.

In order to achieve this end, TACC will be assessing the suitability of using RDBMS technology in the storage, retrieval, and processing of at least four heterogeneous data sources spanning a range from geospatial (NEXRAD precipitation), bioinformatics (Comparative RNA Web Database), volumes (computed tomography of fossils) to data associated with traditional finite element simulations (computational fluid dynamics).

This will require exploration of some of SQL Server 2005’s new capabilities such as user defined types, embedded code, as well as the evaluation of how to maximize parallel I/O from the DB to outboard compute resources or indeed, to use the DB to minimize the need to more large amounts of unneeded data. We hope to answer the question of whether the modern database, deployed in a clustered configuration and taking advantage of parallel processing capability, can provide advantages to the researcher and accelerating the production of knowledge and insight.