SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2003--
Center to be First to Receive New Fully
Populated Production Cray X1 System
Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq:CRAY) today
announced a $15 million order for Cray X1(TM) supercomputer equipment
and maintenance from Network Computing Services, Inc. (NCSI), systems
integrator and computing facilities manager for the Army High
Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC).
The order calls for the installation, in stages during 2003, of a
new Cray X1 supercomputer system and upgrades to early-production Cray
X1 equipment shipped last fall, along with a trade-in, maintenance and
related services. Further contract details were not disclosed.
"Through our prior acquisition of early-production Cray X1
systems, the AHPCRC and NCSI were able to thoroughly evaluate the
capabilities inherent in this new hierarchical parallel vector
processor architecture. The AHPCRC is now uniquely positioned to apply
the production Cray X1 to key applications in computational mechanics,
battlefield weather forecasting, and biological process modeling that
are of great importance to the defense of the United States," said
Paul Muzio, NCSI VP-Government Programs and AHPCRC Support
Infrastructure Director.
"This procurement provides the Department of Defense's High
Performance Computing Modernization Program, the Army, and the Defense
science and technology community at-large, access to a new and
important advanced capability computing system." Muzio added, "Through
this, the AHPCRC is also supporting the Defense Science Board's Task
Force on Supercomputing recommendation related to the development and
acquisition of high computing systems with improved processor to
global memory latency and bandwidth for critical defense
applications."
Dr. Vipin Kumar, AHPCRC Research Director and Professor of
Computer Science, University of Minnesota, added, "The Cray X1 will
allow the AHPCRC researchers to continue leading edge research in the
areas of computational structural and fluid dynamics, computational
electromagnetics, design of materials, and enabling technologies, as
well as focus on new areas of great national importance such as
modeling and simulation of chemical-biological effects and information
assurance. In particular, the unique balanced architecture of Cray X1
and its follow-ons will allow the researchers to harness a much
greater fraction of the peak performance than is possible with other
contemporary parallel computers."
"The AHPCRC will be the first customer to receive a fully
populated, production Cray X1 system," said Cray Chairman and CEO Jim
Rottsolk. "This reflects the strong historical relationship between
the AHPCRC and Cray, and their commitment to perform substantial
applications development work on the early-production units. As a
result, the AHPCRC will have a head start in introducing the
Department of Defense research community to a whole new class of
high-performance computing using its large, production-quality Cray X1
supercomputers," he said.
About the AHPCRC
The AHPCRC is a Government-University-Industry partnership
committed to helping the U.S. Army and the nation maintain its
defense technology lead and providing future generations of
researchers with advanced training and research opportunities in
science, engineering and the computational sciences. Funding for the
AHPCRC is provided by the U.S. Army and the Army Research Laboratory
(www.arl.army.mil) with funding for major equipment acquisition
provided through the DoD HPCMP (www.hpcmo.hpc.mil). NCSI is the prime
contractor for AHPCRC Support Infrastructure, Contract
DAAD19-03-D-0001. The University of Minnesota is the prime contractor
for the AHPCRC Collaborative Agreement for Research whose partners
include Clark Atlanta, Florida A&M, Howard, and Jackson State
Universities, the University of North Dakota, and NCSI, Contract
DAAD19-01-2-0014 (www.ahpcrc.org).
About NCSI
NCSI, as systems integrator and computing facilities manager for
the AHPCRC, will operate the AHPCRC's Cray X1 systems. NCSI has a
20-year history of providing commercial high performance computing
services to Fortune 500 companies and the government. NCSI is a
subsidiary of netASPx, Inc. (www.netaspx.com) netASPx provides a broad
spectrum of information services, including integrated business to
business E-commerce applications, systems integration, applications
management, network computing, and shared-computing services on some
of the world's most powerful high-performance computer systems.
netASPx is a leading, facilities-based ASP headquartered in Herndon,
Virginia with its Operations Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
About Cray Inc.
Cray's mission is to be the premier provider of supercomputing
solutions for customers' most challenging technical problems. Go to
www.cray.com for more information about the company.
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
factors are the technical challenges of developing new high
performance computer systems, the ability of Cray supercomputer
systems to pass individual customer acceptance tests, timely
availability of commercially acceptable components from third party
suppliers and general economic and market conditions. A discussion of
these and other risk factors is available in Cray's Rule 424(a)
preliminary prospectus filed with the SEC on January 16, 2003.
Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray X1 is a trademark, of
Cray Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
--30--mi/se*
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Cray Inc. |
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Ken Johnson, 206/701-2091 |
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ken@cray.com |
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Snyder Investor Relations |
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John Snyder, 206/262-0291 |
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john@snyderir.com |
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Network Computing Services, Inc. |
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Paul Muzio, 612/337-3420 |
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pmuzio@networkcs.com |
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