Cray Sells First T3E-1350 Supercomputer to Phillips Petroleum.Business Editors and Technology Writers SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000 Faster Model Of World's Most Powerful Supercomputer supercomputer, a state-of-the-art, extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specialized scientific and engineering applications that must handle very Line Will Help Find New Oil Deposits, Lower Exploration and Development Costs Cray Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:CRAY) today announced that 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. has signed a $3.6 million order for the first Cray T3E-1350(TM) system, a faster model of the product line that holds the current world record for computer problem-solving speed. Phillips will use the new supercomputer to help find new oil deposits and lower exploration and development costs. The 136-processor Cray T3E-1350 supercomputer will be installed at Phillips' Bartlesville, Okla. headquarters facility in August, and is expected to complete the customer acceptance process by late September. The new system replaces a 64-processor Cray T3E-900(TM) supercomputer and will be used to run advanced, 3-D seismic processing applications that detect untapped oil deposits in hard-to-explore areas. The Cray T3E-1350 system will allow Phillips to apply advanced seismic imaging methods over larger areas and with greater resolution and accuracy than before. The new system features faster, 675 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. processors each rated at 1.35 billion calculations per second, larger memory, and enhanced interprocessor and memory bandwidth Memory bandwidth is the rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by a processor. Memory bandwidth is usually expressed in units of bytes/second, though this can vary for systems with natural data sizes that are not a multiple of the commonly used . Phillips' Cray T3E-1350 supercomputer will have 84 gigabytes of memory. The Cray T3E-1350 series is fully compatible with all earlier models of the Cray T3E The Cray T3E was Cray Research's second-generation massively parallel supercomputer architecture, launched in 1995. Like the previous Cray T3D It was a fully distributed memory machine using a 3D torus topology interconnection network. (TM) product line. The Cray T3E system was awarded 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 for achieving the current world-record sustained speed of more than one trillion calculations per second on a real-world, 64-bit application. The Cray T3E system outperforms other vendors' scalable systems, even those with higher theoretical ("peak") performance, because the Cray T3E is designed as a large, efficient single system, rather than a less-efficient "cluster" that links together separate smaller computers. "Finding still-hidden oil deposits is increasingly challenging, especially as we explore in deep-water environments in the presence of complex geological formations, such as salt layers that distort seismic data," said Paul Valasek, project manager for the seismic imaging group at Phillips Petroleum. "We use Cray technology to run massive seismic imaging applications that correct this distortion and help us to 'see' the geological strata more clearly and help reduce risk in well placement." Kay Wyatt, research leader in seismic imaging and multi-component technologies, also comments that, "We are using the Cray technology to assist us in defining more than just the structural aspects of the earth. Advanced technologies, such as multi-component seismic, let us better understand the rock and fluid properties of the geologic strata as well." "The Cray T3E line is the reigning world champion for proven high-end scalability. Now the Cray T3E-1350 series will provide even faster real-world results for customers like Phillips Petroleum whose applications require extreme performance," 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. About Cray Inc. Cray Inc. designs, builds and sells high-performance vector processor A computer with built-in instructions that perform multiple calculations on vectors (one-dimensional arrays) simultaneously. It is used to solve the same or similar problems as an array processor; however, a vector processor passes a vector to a functional unit, whereas an array 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 multithreaded - multithreading Architecture and Cray T3E and SV2 systems 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 forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. . There are certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. Among such factors risks are 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-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. . Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray T3E, Cray T3E-900 and Cray T3E-1350 are trademarks, of Cray Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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