SGI DELIVERS FIRST 256-PROCESSOR SGI ORIGIN 3000 SERIES SYSTEM TO ARMYRESEARCH LABORATORY.

SGI (NYSE: SGI) has announced that the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC), Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., has installed a 256-processor SGI Origin 3800 system as part of the Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). The supercomputer is the largest SGI Origin 3000 series shared-memory system delivered to date.

The delivery of this 256-processor, single-system image SGI Origin 3800 server is a significant milestone for SGI. In July, SGI launched its new SGI Origin 3000 series servers. Based on patented SGI NUMAflex modular technology, the systems offer unparalleled flexibility, resiliency, investment protection and performance.

The third-generation SGI NUMA architecture will provide DoD scientists and engineers with easier system administration and software program development, while at the same time providing unprecedented performance. The powerful 256-processor configuration will enable DoD researchers to address larger-scale, more-complex problems than ever before, including the simulation and modeling of computational fluid dynamics problems.

"We are very excited about the capabilities provided by the 256-processor SGI Origin 3800 single-system image," said Charles J. Nietubicz, division chief of ARL's High Performance Computing Division and director of the ARL MSRC. "Scalability for the SGI Origin 3800 server gives our technical users a more flexible and powerful computing environment to work in, with increased performance on a wider variety of applications."

Scalability to 256 processors offers an unprecedented level of performance in a shared-memory operating environment. A single-system image reduces time to insight and makes a computer much more efficient and powerful by providing global shared access to all the system resources. In addition, the lack of hard system boundaries allows efficient workload scheduling and simplifies system management.

By exploiting its NUMAflex system interconnect technology and high-performance enterprise software, SGI can easily scale the SGI Origin 3000 series to 256-processor single systems and higher. As part of its supercomputing roadmap, SGI plans to scale the SGI Origin 3000 series to 1,024 processors within a single shared-memory architecture by early 2001.

SGI Origin 3000 series servers utilize the unique NUMAflex modular technology, a brick-style system for constructing small to very large systems from a common set of building blocks. NUMAflex technology allows users to build the optimum configuration one component at a time and adopt new technologies that map to their specific business or research needs.

With the largest single-kernel, shared-memory image available today, the SGI Origin 3800 server can easily scale with snap-together modularity to 512 processors. As part of its Performance Level 3b upgrade program, ARL plans to install a separate 512-processor SGI Origin 3800 system.

Altogether, the 768 SGI 400 MHz processors from the two SGI Origin 3800 systems will help to quadruple ARL MSRC's computing power, making the facility one of the world's top 10 most powerful computer sites with a data rate of approximately 2 trillion floating-point calculations per second.

The Performance Level 3b upgrade is a component of the DoD HPCMP, designed to give the United States the technological edge by offering researchers access to the latest computational equipment and scientific developments. The ARL MSRC, which comes under the direction of the DoD HPCMP, is implementing a three-part plan to acquire, develop, install and test new computational tools and equipment.