Cray Inc. Signs $43.2 Million Supercomputer Contract with Korea Meteorological Administration.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004 Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq NM:CRAY) today announced that it has signed a five-year contract valued at $43.2 million to supply the next-generation supercomputer to the Korea Meteorological me·te·or·ol·o·gy n. The science that deals with the phenomena of the atmosphere, especially weather and weather conditions. [French météorologie, from Greek Administration (KMA KMA Kiss My Ass KMA Korea Meteorological Administration KMA Koninklijke Militaire Academie (Royal Military Academy; Netherlands) KMA Knoxville Museum of Art KMA Kentucky Medical Association KMA Korean Medical Association ), one of the world's premier weather forecasting weather forecasting Prediction of the weather through application of the principles of physics and meteorology. Weather forecasting predicts atmospheric phenomena and changes on the Earth's surface caused by atmospheric conditions (snow and ice cover, storm tides, floods, and research centers. Cray and KMA also will jointly establish an Earth System Research Center aimed at advancing atmospheric modeling in the East Asia East Asia A region of Asia coextensive with the Far East. East Asian adj. & n. Pacific region, the company said. On April 29, Cray reported that it had been selected for the competitive contract award, subject to successful contract completion. The contract has now been completed. Cray was selected based on the superior performance of the Cray X1(TM) supercomputer system and the Cray X1E(TM) planned successor system on KMA's benchmark suite of weather prediction applications. Additional key criteria included Cray's proposed storage area network (SAN), data management solution and overall service capabilities. KMA and Korea's Public Procurement Services reported that other bidders included Hewlett-Packard, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. . D. I. Lee, KMA's chief, Supercomputer Center Branch, said, "I would like to express my satisfaction at the selection of the Cray system as our next supercomputer, based on the real performance of KMA's operational applications. The Cray system as a data processing data processing or information processing, operations (e.g., handling, merging, sorting, and computing) performed upon data in accordance with strictly defined procedures, such as recording and summarizing the financial transactions of a engine will provide the basic infrastructure to understand the Earth System and to make the information and products to support sound decision-making for national policy and management. KMA expects not only good performance from the Cray system, but also good support from Cray as a company." "The global weather-environmental community has extremely demanding requirements for supercomputer capability and reliability, and KMA is one of the premier sites in this community," said Cray Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Jim Rottsolk. "This win demonstrates that Cray is renewing its leadership in the weather-environmental market by offering systems purpose-built for the most challenging applications. We look forward to collaborating closely with KMA to achieve their ambitious goals." Cray's first-phase delivery to KMA is scheduled for later this year, with a system based on the current Cray X1 technology. With a peak speed of more than two teraflops (two trillion calculations per second), this will be one of the largest numerical weather forecasting systems in the world. Cray will also provide service and support, including applications support for KMA's research and operational weather and climate models. In 2005, Cray will provide a major upgrade to the successor Cray X1E technology, which will enable still higher-resolution weather models and larger ensemble forecasts. The new Cray supercomputing solution will support KMA's operational mission and help advance KMA's leadership status among numerical weather prediction Numerical weather prediction uses mathematical models of the atmosphere to predict the weather. Manipulating the huge datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to do this on a resolution fine enough to make the results useful can require some of the most powerful centers worldwide. The enhanced computational capabilities will allow KMA to improve the forecast accuracy of very short-range severe weather phenomena Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property. Examples Include: Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, and (in , and the prediction of long-term monsoon and climate-change events. The socio-economic benefits of the improved forecasting ability could be substantial, Cray officials said. For example, in September 2002 typhoon Rusa Typhoon Rusa (international designation: 0215, JTWC designation: 21W) was the 21st JTWC tropical depression (21W), the 15th named storm, and the 10th typhoon of the 2002 Pacific typhoon season. hit the South Korean peninsula, causing more than 50 deaths and as much as $4 billion in damages while severely impairing the country's infrastructure. About the Korea Meteorological Administration As a government administrative organization, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) is responsible for improving public welfare through the prevention and mitigation of meteorological disasters, as well as the provision of meteorological support in industrial activities. KMA provides meteorological services to the public and actively carries out programs for research and international cooperation. About Cray Inc. Cray's mission is to be the premier provider of supercomputing solutions for its customers' most challenging scientific and engineering problems. Go to www.cray.com for more information about the company. Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. 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. These include the technical challenges of developing high performance computing systems, the successful porting of application programs to Cray systems, reliance on third-party suppliers and Cray's ability to pass acceptance tests. For a discussion of these and other risks, see "Factors That Could Affect Future Results" in Cray's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. filed with the SEC. Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray X1 is a trademark, of Cray Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion