CFX, NT parallel, Linux, best platform

Heiko Gerhauser

On the CFX website a new version of CFX 4.4 is promised for the end of July that's supposed to enable parallel computing on homogeneous networks of PC's running Windows NT, and a port to Linux.

It's August, any idea when this latest version of CFX 4.4 will really come out?

On a related point, what would be the best platform for transient problems (such as fluidised beds) that don't require very large mesh sizes, assuming that a lot of money is available for the hardware?

CFX tells me they don't support Itanium (they do have a press release on their web site, dated October 2000, where they promise support for Itanium based hardware from SGI). Linux isn't supported yet, neither are Windows NT clusters. That would leave Windows NT and 4 Xeons, or Alphas from Compaq, or a dual processor Pentium 4. Maybe something from SGI, IBM.

Assuming a fairly large budget, what option would be recommendable? And how much improvement would one get compared to a 1.2 GHz Athlon runing CFX4.4 on Windows NT?