"Plug and Play" Cluster Software's Pro Version Debuts

WWDC 2004, San Francisco, - June 28, 2004 - While releasing version 1.5 of Pooch, Dauger Research, Inc., debuts Pooch Pro, an enhanced version of the Parallel OperatiOn and Control Heuristic application. Pooch Pro debuts new supercomputer-level capabilities to administrate and control cluster resources. Pooch Pro provides an unprecedented and unmatched combination of powerful management and maintenance of cluster resources with a modern, drag-and-drop, graphical user interface. With its intuitive dynamic job queue and scheduling system, this new version of Pooch makes supercomputing capabilities accessible, maximizing the power of clusters for its users.

"Pooch and Pooch Pro serve two categories of cluster users. Pooch is the simplest path to practical cluster computing, while Pooch Pro provides additional administrative powers to manage and share cluster resources", said Dr. Dean Dauger, President of Dauger Research, Inc. "By short-circuiting the aggravation of complex configuration, fragility, and arcane commands, both Pooch and Pooch Pro carry the Macintosh philosophy to supercomputer-compatible cluster computing."

"Pooch Pro is a significant addition to the many newly released Mac OS X products in the high performance computing market," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "Dauger Research delivered the first cluster solution for Mac OS X and we are thrilled about the new, powerful supercomputer-level capabilities of Pooch Pro 1.5."

Pooch Pro debuts with features like those at supercomputing centers. Pooch Pro users are given quotas, password-based cluster access, and rollover time. Administrators can use Pooch Pro to share cluster resources by configuring user accounts, groups, and users' access to computational power, all in a straightforward, easy-to-use, graphical user interface. Pooch Pro even utilizes Apple's CDSA implementation for secure data encryption.

Pooch and Pooch Pro can utilize logged out OS X machines for parallel computing, and supports automated grid behavior and cluster access for other desktop applications. Pooch's tolerance for variations in node configuration and execution environments is unparalleled. The Pooch product family continues the legacy features of combining computational resources over the Internet with a mouse click and installation on a node in seconds.

Pooch, the first to discover cluster nodes via Rendezvous, adapts to the latest advances in technology on the platform. The Pooch product line supports three different Message-Passing Interface (MPI) implementations to take advantage of parallel computing within boxes and across boxes simultaneously. A suite of utilities designed for remote, command-line installation and access accompanies every Pooch shipped.

Dauger Research, Inc., has created extensive tutorials on the Pooch website outlining the different types of parallel computing, detailed MPI information, and descriptions, with example code in Fortran and C, of the basics of writing parallel code. Website visitors can download GUI and command-line installers containing a trial Pooch, sample parallel applications and source code, a Pooch Software Development Kit, and full documentation. With a discussion mailing list devoted to parallel computing and updated information about designing, compiling, and running code in parallel, Dauger Research's Pooch website makes it easier than ever to write, develop, and run your parallel code today.

Users with active subscriptions are automatically upgraded to the Pooch Pro-level; their updates are shipping. Those users will have the opportunity to renew at the Pooch Pro- or Pooch-level at their next normal renewal date.

Pooch v1.5 is available for US$175 for the first compute node then US$125 for each node thereafter. Pooch Pro v1.5 is available for US$200 for the first compute node then US$150 for each node thereafter. See the web site for special academic pricing.

Users may order Pooch and other available software using the forms on our web site or online through the Dauger Research Store.

Pooch requires networked Macintoshes and/or XServe's running Mac OS 9 with CarbonLib 1.2 or later, Mac OS X 10.2 or later, and/or Mac OS X Server 10.2 or later with 4 MB of available RAM and 2 MB of disk space. Pooch Pro requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later, and/or Mac OS X Server 10.2 or later.

We encourage you to revisit the Pooch web site and visit the Dauger Research booth at WWDC 2004's Exhibit Hall.
Apple has also invited Dr. Dauger to speak in the Software Optimization session (642: Thursday, July 1, 2 pm, Nob Hill) of their High-Performance Computing track.

Dauger Research, Inc. makes high-performance computation and visualization easy to use and accessible to users. Our award-winning team, to better accomplish our scientific goals, reinvented the cluster computer in 1998, pioneering easy-to-use, high-performance clusters. Dauger Research, Inc., is committed to bridging the divides between the scientifically and technically complex and the mainstream.

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