Upgrade Will Allow Researchers to Tackle Critical National Security Problems
SEATTLE, WA, Feb 06, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced
that Sandia National Laboratories has entered into an agreement to
upgrade its "Red Storm" supercomputer, already one of the world's
largest systems, from 124 teraflops (one trillion floating points per
second) to 284 teraflops. This significant boost in performance will
allow researchers and scientists to run even higher resolution models
to increase the accuracy of critical computer simulations.
Sandia and Cray co-designed Red Storm as part of a contract under the
National Nuclear Security Agency's (NNSA) Office of Advanced
Simulation and Computing (ASC). The Red Storm design became the basis
for the highly scalable and successful Cray XT(TM) line of massively
parallel processor (MPP) supercomputers that have been installed at a
number of prestigious supercomputing centers around the world.
"This is another significant step in the evolution of this important
system," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "Initially a
40 teraflops machine, this is its second major upgrade, adding in Cray
XT4(TM) technology to take Red Storm to seven times its original
performance level. Cray's entire line of MPP systems is built to be
uniquely expandable and upgradeable, and Sandia has substantially
leveraged their original investment while achieving the Department of
Energy's NNSA program's ambitious computational goals. This new
performance level will allow researchers to tackle even larger
computational problems including calculations that have never been
successfully completed before."
The upgrade, scheduled to take place this summer, will include
integrating Quad Core AMD Opteron(TM) processors into a substantial
portion of the system as well as increasing the available memory to
2GB per computational core across the entire system.
"We're pleased to continue our successful partnership with Cray,"
said Robert Meisner, Deputy Director of ASC at the NNSA. "The more
than twofold increase in computing power provided by this upgrade
will provide important capacity for tackling national security
problems."
About Sandia National Laboratories
Since 1949 Sandia National Laboratories has developed science-based
technologies that support U.S. security. The laboratory primarily
focuses on nuclear weapons, energy and infrastructure assurance,
nonproliferation verification, defense systems and assessments, and
antiterrorism. It is an NNSA laboratory. Go to www.sandia.gov for
more information.
About Red Storm
Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy and NNSA to address
computing and simulation requirements, Cray and Sandia National
Laboratories jointly produced the Red Storm supercomputer. Red Storm
is an MPP supercomputer with distributed memory, multiple-instruction
and multiple-data architecture to provide exceptional computational
power. It is not only one of the world's fastest supercomputers, but
offers ease of use, system balance, sustained performance and
reliability. Go to http://www.sandia.gov/ASC/redstorm.html for more
information.
About Cray Inc.
As a global leader in supercomputing, Cray provides highly advanced
supercomputers and world-class services and support to government,
industry and academia. Cray technology enables scientists and
engineers to achieve remarkable breakthroughs by accelerating
performance, improving efficiency and extending the capabilities of
their most demanding applications. Cray's Adaptive
Supercomputing
vision will result in innovative next-generation products that
integrate diverse processing technologies into a unified
architecture, allowing customers to surpass today's limitations and
meeting the market's continued demand for realized performance. Go to
www.cray.com for more information.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are
certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ
materially from those anticipated by the statements above. Among
these are the technical challenges of developing high-performance
computing systems, including potential delays in hardware and
software development projects; reliance on third-party suppliers,
including delays in availability of qualified parts from suppliers;
Cray's ability to scale the system to the targeted level of
performance; timing of and successful porting of application programs
to new computing systems; and successful passing of acceptance tests.
For a discussion of these and other risks, see "Risk Factors" in
Cray's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.
Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray XT and Cray XT4, are
trademarks of Cray Inc. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron and
combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Cray Investors:
Vic Chynoweth
206/701-2094
ir@cray.com
Cray Media:
Erin McGhee
206/701-2107
pr@cray.com
SOURCE: Cray Inc.
mailto:ir@cray.com
mailto:pr@cray.com