Status and performance of the Compact Muon Solenoid pixel detector

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC incorporates a 66 million channel silicon pixel detector at its center for track seeding and precise vertexing. The hardware and data acquisition software of the pixel detector are briefly introduced in this paper. Experience with installation is succinctly recounted and some of the calibrations performed during the commissioning period are described. Preliminary performance numbers like charge collection and hit residuals from cosmic ray tracks are presented