Microsoft has delivered Release Candidate 1 of its enterprise version of Windows 2000, Datacenter Server, bringing the public release planned for late this season a step closer to reality.
Release Candidate 1 of Datacenter Server went to server hardware manufacturers and joint software development partners. The high-level users will give Datacenter its final test phase before commercial release at a still-unspecified date.
Unlike previous versions of Windows NT, Windows 2000 Datacenter will be able to run on symmetrical multiprocessing machines with up to 32 processors. NT was regarded as able to handle four, six or, at most, eight processors at a time.
In addition, Datacenter will have the ability to link four servers in a cluster, while NT's Wolfpack clustered only two. Datacenter automatically implements load balancing across the machines as a standard feature. It will also be able to address up to 64 gigabytes of physical memory, according to information published about Datacenter at Microsoft's Web site.
According to the early Microsoft information, Datacenter will include Winsock Direct -- to facilitate high-speed communications in a system area network -- and a new object management tool called Process Control Tool.
Datacenter is intended as Microsoft's high-end, high-reliability operating system for enterprise servers and heavily trafficked networks.
