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Cray Unveils the Cray XC30 Supercomputer -- the Next Generation of Its High-End Supercomputing Systems
[November 08, 2012]

Cray Unveils the Cray XC30 Supercomputer -- the Next Generation of Its High-End Supercomputing Systems


(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/08/12 -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced the launch of the Company's next generation high-end supercomputing systems -- the Cray XC30 supercomputer. Previously code-named "Cascade," the Cray XC30 supercomputer is the Company's most-advanced high performance computing system ever built.



The Cray XC30 combines the new Aries interconnect, Intel® Xeon® processors, Cray's powerful and fully-integrated software environment, and innovative power and cooling technologies to create a production supercomputer that is designed to scale high performance computing (HPC) workloads of more than 100 petaflops.

"After several years of incredibly hard work focused on completing the most ambitious R&D program in our company's history, today's unveiling of the Cray XC30 supercomputer is an exciting moment for Cray employees and our customers who have been eagerly anticipating what is an amazing new system," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "As a follow on to our most successful, productive line of supercomputers, the Cray XC30 is the realization of our Adaptive Supercomputing vision and will provide researchers, scientists and engineers with a system that can adapt to fit their most demanding applications. We're off to a great start with more than $100 million in contracts for this system, and we believe the Cray XC30 series of supercomputers will allow a broader base of users to leverage the world's most advanced supercomputing technology." Several leading HPC centers have signed contracts to purchase Cray XC30 supercomputers, including: The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano, Switzerland The Pawsey Centre in Perth, Australia, owned by CSIRO and operated by iVEC The Finnish IT Center for Science Ltd. (CSC) The Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in Berkeley, Calif. The Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies (ACCMS) at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan The University of Stuttgart's High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in Germany The first customer to sign a Cray XC30 contract was HLRS in Stuttgart back in 2010. "The Cray XC30 system will be a valuable supercomputing resource for our researchers and scientists, as well as for our industrial partners in the automotive and aerospace industries," said Prof. Dr. Michael Resch, director of HLRS. "We have worked closely with Cray over the years to ensure our users are equipped with innovative supercomputing systems that are built with leading-edge supercomputing technology, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Cray XC30." The first in a family of products that will span from technical enterprise computing to the largest systems in the world, the Cray XC30 supercomputer has been engineered to meet the real-world performance challenges of HPC users. Cray's new high-end system features the new HPC-optimized Aries system interconnect; a new Dragonfly topology that frees applications from locality constraints; an innovative cooling system that utilizes a transverse airflow to lower customers' total cost of ownership; the next-generation of the scalable, high performance Cray Linux Environment that also supports a wide range of ISV applications; Cray's HPC optimized programming environment; and the ability to handle a wide variety of processor types including the Intel® Xeon® processors -- a first for Cray's high-end systems.


"Today's launch of the new Cray XC30 supercomputer is an exciting moment for Cray, Intel and more importantly, the vast HPC user community, which will be able to take advantage of the computational resources of Cray supercomputers powered by Intel® Xeon® E5 processors and Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors and supported by Intel's investments in fabric," said Raj Hazra, Intel VP and general manager of Technical Computing Group. "The Cray XC30 system is specifically designed to deliver sustained performance and scalability, providing researchers and scientists with a powerful, reliable and productive tool for achieving breakthrough innovations and discoveries." The Cray XC30 will utilize the Intel® Xeon® processors E5-2600 product family and with these Intel processors, Cray XC30 systems can scale in excess of one million cores. Additionally, future versions of the Cray XC family of supercomputers will be available with the new Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessors and NVIDIA® Tesla® GPUs based on the next-generation NVIDIA Kepler™ GPU computing architecture. With these accelerator and coprocessor options, Cray customers will be able to customize a Cray XC supercomputer with the innovative processor technologies that best meets the HPC needs of their scientific applications.

Early shipments of the Cray XC30 are starting now, and systems are expected to be widely available in first quarter of 2013.

"Cray is a leader in the high-end of the supercomputing industry, and the Cray XC30 system promises to continue the Company's strong standing in the market for designing, building and installing leadership-class supercomputers, such as the 'Titan' system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the 'Blue Waters' supercomputer at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications," said Earl Joseph, IDC program vice president for HPC. "The Cray XC30 supercomputer also advances Cray's Adaptive Supercomputing vision, which aims to boost application performance for their customers by exploiting hybrid processing." The Cray XC30 supercomputer is made possible in part by Cray's participation in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) High Productivity Computing Systems program.

Additional information on the Cray XC30 supercomputer, including product collateral, technical details and a Cray XC30 networking whitepaper can be found on Cray XC30 system page on the Cray website.

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 is designed to enable 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 is focused on delivering 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 StatementThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, including, but not limited to, statements related to its product development plans, including the timing of availability of the Cray XC30 system, the sales prospects of the Cray XC30 system and the ability of the Cray XC30 system to perform as expected. These statements involve current expectations, forecasts of future events and other statements that are not historical facts. Inaccurate assumptions and known and unknown risks and uncertainties can affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements and cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect actual future events or results include, but are not limited to, the risk that Cray is not able to successfully complete its planned product development efforts and deliveries related to the Cray XC30 within the planned timeframes or at all, the risk that Cray XC30 systems do not perform as expected or as required by customers, the risk that customer acceptances are not received when expected or at all, the risk that Cray will not be able to sell Cray XC30 systems as expected and such other risks as identified in the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and from time to time in other reports filed by Cray with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this release. Cray undertakes no duty to publicly announce or report revisions to these statements as new information becomes available that may change the Company's expectations.

Cray is a registered trademark of Cray Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Cray XC30 and Cray Linux Environment are trademarks of Cray Inc. Other product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw attachid=2146518 Cray Media: Nick Davis 206/701-2123 [email protected] Cray Investors: Paul Hiemstra 206/701-2044 [email protected] Source: Cray Inc.

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