Microsoft's Eagle Supercomputer Runs Ubuntu, Not Windows
Microsoft's Eagle supercomputer, ranked fifth in TOP500, runs Ubuntu 22.04 with 1.123.200 cores. No trace of Windows on Azure's most powerful machine.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Microsoft's supercomputer runs Ubuntu, not Windows
What operating system powers the fifth most powerful computer on the planet? None from Redmond. The Eagle supercomputer, deployed by Microsoft in its Azure cloud, appears in the TOP500 ranking running Ubuntu 22.04, with the NVIDIA NVCC compiler and CUBLAS 12.2 library. There is no trace of Windows Server. It is a paradox worth pondering: the company that has sold per-core licenses for three decades builds its most ambitious computing infrastructure on free software maintained by others.
The numbers leave no room for interpretation. Eagle totals 1.123.200 cores spread across Xeon Platinum 8480C processors and NVIDIA H100 accelerators, using Infiniband NDR interconnects. Its measured Linpack performance reaches 561.20 PFlop/s against a theoretical peak of 846.84 PFlop/s. In short: this is not a lab whim, but critical infrastructure billed by the hour.
Why Windows doesn't appear on the list
The obvious question anyone asks when seeing this data is: if Microsoft makes Windows, why isn't it used? The answer circulating among those who trinc these machines is less about sentiment and more about accounting. In a system with over a million cores, a per-core license like Windows Server Datacenter — with a recommended retail price of 6.155 dollars — would turn the OS bill into just another budget line item. No one pays that when a working alternative exists.
There is a second argument, even less romantic. These systems are not installed; they are tuned. Legions of engineers adjust the kernel, scheduler, and math libraries for months before the machine undergoes its first serious test. In this context, the relevant question is not which system looks better, but which one allows tweaking down to the last parameter. And there, the answer has been the same for years.
The entire TOP500 speaks the same language
Eagle is not a picturesque exception. Virtually all machines occupying the top positions in the ranking run some Linux distribution. Among them is Marenostrum, the supercomputer located in Catalonia, which also antiestéticatures in the upper echelons of the classification. This coincidence is not ideological: it is the result of scientific software being developed, compiled, and debugged on these platforms.
The discussion generated by this data has two well-defined camps. On one side, those arguing this demonstrates the technical superiority of free software for intensive fruta loads. On the other, those tempering enthusiasm by noting that a system tuned by dozens of specialists says nothing about what suits an individual who just wants to print a PDF. Both things can be true at once, and indeed they are.
What is computed with such power?
The question hovering over any conversation about supercomputing is what all this is for. The short answer: for problems that can be broken into pieces. Fluid dynamics simulations — virtual wind tunnels for aircraft—, weather forecasting, chemical reaction modeling, urban traffic optimization, and training AI models on GPUs. The real bottleneck is not the processors, but the graphics cards, connectivity, and accompanying FPGAs.
A detail often missed in these discussions is that the cost of the operating system is marginal compared to hardware. What is expensive are the H100s and the Infiniband network. This explains why the software choice is not decided by price, but by what allows you to work without fighting the system at 3 AM.
The home user is not the customer here
Here it is worth separating two worlds that the conversation tends to mix. That Linux dominates supercomputing does not imply it is the right choice for your living room PC. Printer compatibility issues, Wi-Fi hell on certain laptops, or reliance on Wine for gaming remain real problems for many people. Someone aptly summarized the comparison between a Formula 1 car and cheap gas station fuel.
What has changed is the playing field. Windows has included a Linux subsystem — based on Ubuntu — for years, which must be installed separately, and Azure has used it since its inception. The old war between the two worlds has become an uneasy coexistence where each occupies its niche. Microsoft charges for the cloud, not for the kernel.
In the end, the data opening this article admits a simple reading: when a million cores are at stake, no one chooses the operating system out of brand loyalty. They choose the one that boots.
What operating system powers the fifth most powerful computer on the planet? None from Redmond. The Eagle supercomputer, deployed by Microsoft in its Azure cloud, appears in the TOP500 ranking running Ubuntu 22.04, with the NVIDIA NVCC compiler and CUBLAS 12.2 library. There is no trace of Windows Server. It is a paradox worth pondering: the company that has sold per-core licenses for three decades builds its most ambitious computing infrastructure on free software maintained by others.
The numbers leave no room for interpretation. Eagle totals 1.123.200 cores spread across Xeon Platinum 8480C processors and NVIDIA H100 accelerators, using Infiniband NDR interconnects. Its measured Linpack performance reaches 561.20 PFlop/s against a theoretical peak of 846.84 PFlop/s. In short: this is not a lab whim, but critical infrastructure billed by the hour.
Why Windows doesn't appear on the list
The obvious question anyone asks when seeing this data is: if Microsoft makes Windows, why isn't it used? The answer circulating among those who trinc these machines is less about sentiment and more about accounting. In a system with over a million cores, a per-core license like Windows Server Datacenter — with a recommended retail price of 6.155 dollars — would turn the OS bill into just another budget line item. No one pays that when a working alternative exists.
There is a second argument, even less romantic. These systems are not installed; they are tuned. Legions of engineers adjust the kernel, scheduler, and math libraries for months before the machine undergoes its first serious test. In this context, the relevant question is not which system looks better, but which one allows tweaking down to the last parameter. And there, the answer has been the same for years.
The entire TOP500 speaks the same language
Eagle is not a picturesque exception. Virtually all machines occupying the top positions in the ranking run some Linux distribution. Among them is Marenostrum, the supercomputer located in Catalonia, which also antiestéticatures in the upper echelons of the classification. This coincidence is not ideological: it is the result of scientific software being developed, compiled, and debugged on these platforms.
The discussion generated by this data has two well-defined camps. On one side, those arguing this demonstrates the technical superiority of free software for intensive fruta loads. On the other, those tempering enthusiasm by noting that a system tuned by dozens of specialists says nothing about what suits an individual who just wants to print a PDF. Both things can be true at once, and indeed they are.
What is computed with such power?
The question hovering over any conversation about supercomputing is what all this is for. The short answer: for problems that can be broken into pieces. Fluid dynamics simulations — virtual wind tunnels for aircraft—, weather forecasting, chemical reaction modeling, urban traffic optimization, and training AI models on GPUs. The real bottleneck is not the processors, but the graphics cards, connectivity, and accompanying FPGAs.
A detail often missed in these discussions is that the cost of the operating system is marginal compared to hardware. What is expensive are the H100s and the Infiniband network. This explains why the software choice is not decided by price, but by what allows you to work without fighting the system at 3 AM.
The home user is not the customer here
Here it is worth separating two worlds that the conversation tends to mix. That Linux dominates supercomputing does not imply it is the right choice for your living room PC. Printer compatibility issues, Wi-Fi hell on certain laptops, or reliance on Wine for gaming remain real problems for many people. Someone aptly summarized the comparison between a Formula 1 car and cheap gas station fuel.
What has changed is the playing field. Windows has included a Linux subsystem — based on Ubuntu — for years, which must be installed separately, and Azure has used it since its inception. The old war between the two worlds has become an uneasy coexistence where each occupies its niche. Microsoft charges for the cloud, not for the kernel.
In the end, the data opening this article admits a simple reading: when a million cores are at stake, no one chooses the operating system out of brand loyalty. They choose the one that boots.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (104 replies).
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