Cray Inc. Supercomputers are Fastest Among Leading Vendors On "World's Top500 Supercomputers" List.Business Editors and Technology Writers SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2000 Cray Systems Average 47 Percent Faster Than Closest Major Competitor On Theoretical Speed Test and Hold World Record For Actual Speed Cray Inc. (Nasdaq:CRAY) today said that its supercomputers were fastest among leading vendors' systems in the latest independent list of the "World's Top500 Supercomputer Sites A compilation of the 500 most powerful computers and their installations was started in 1993 and is updated twice a year. Intended to detect trends and provide reliable tracking of high-performance computing systems, the list uses the Linpack benchmark to evaluate performance and rank the ." In addition to averaging 47 percent faster than the closest major competitor in this theoretical (`peak') speed test, the company's Cray T3E(TM) supercomputer holds the current world record for actual computer speed. Cray said its average listed system is the largest and most powerful of any leading vendor: 470 processors and 293.5 billion calculations per second, or gigaflops (GIGA FLoating point OPerations per Second) One billion floating point operations per second. See FLOPS. (unit) gigaflops - (GFLOPS) One thousand million (10^9) floating point operations per second. . The latter figure is 47 percent more powerful than closest major competitor Compaq (199.3 gigaflops), and 69 percent more powerful than the average 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) system (173.8 gigaflops). Aggregate computing power for the 47 Cray systems is 13.8 trillion calculations per second (teraflops), or 15.7 percent of the total power of the 500-system list. The company's outstanding showing was driven by the Cray T3E product line, the current world record-holder for actual ("sustained") speed on a real problem. The prestigious Gordon Bell Prize The Gordon Bell Prizes are a set of awards that were established in 1987. The Prizes were preceded by a similar much smaller prize (nominal) by Alan Karp (then of IBM) challenging claims of MIMD performance improvments proposed in the Letters to the Editor section of the was awarded to a multinational team of researchers for running a full, 64-bit application on a Cray T3E system at a sustained speed of more than one trillion calculations per second (teraflops). Cray Inc. recently introduced an enhanced version of this product line, the Cray T3E-1350, and announced an initial order from Phillips Petroleum Company Phillips Petroleum Company was founded in 1917 by L.E. Phillips and Frank Phillips, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Their younger brother, Waite Phillips was the benefactor of Philmont Scout Ranch. Phillips Petroleum was headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. . The company's other supercomputer products include the revolutionary Cray MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. (TM) multithreaded multithreaded - multithreading system, and the Cray SV1(TM) system, an innovative vector supercomputer. The Cray T3E and Cray SV1 product lines will both be succeeded by the next-generation Cray SV2(TM) series due out in the second half of 2002. The `Top500' rankings are based on Linpack, a standard benchmark test designed to compare the processor (CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. ) performance of many types of computer systems. Linpack is not designed to test other system attributes that can significantly affect the actual performance of supercomputers. "We look forward to more-rigorous tests of the capabilities of high-end supercomputers," said Cray Inc. president 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. "Along with our customers, we applaud current efforts to develop and introduce these more-demanding tests that can complement Linpack in the future." The "Top500 Supercomputing Sites" list is compiled and published by Jack Dongarra, Hans Meuer and Erich Strohmaier from the universities of Tennessee and Mannheim (Germany). This list can be viewed at www.top500.org. About Cray Inc. Cray Inc. designs, builds and sells high-performance vector processor and general-purpose parallel computer systems. The company has leading edge technology, multiple product platforms, nearly 900 employees, a $2 billion installed base of over 600 computers worldwide, major manufacturing and service capabilities and extensive global customer relationships. Cray believes its Multithreaded Architecture and Cray T3E and Cray SV(TM) product lines together represent the future of supercomputing. Go to www.cray.com for more information on 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. Such factors include risks associated with new product development, expected delivery and acceptance times, and timely availability of commercially acceptable components from third party suppliers. For a discussion of such risks, and other risks that could affect Cray's future performance, please see "Risk Factors" in Cray Inc.'s most recent SEC Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray SV, Cray SV1, Cray SV2, Cray MTA and Cray T3E are trademarks, of Cray Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion