ACADEMIA

SiCortex, the first company to engineer a Linux cluster from the silicon up, today announced that high performance computing (HPC) executive John Rollwagen has been elected chairman of the board. Rollwagen, who served as chairman and CEO of HPC pioneer Cray Research from 1981-1993, is also an investor in the company. SiCortex, whose family of high performance Linux clusters was selected as the top product at this year’s IEEE supercomputing conference in Tampa, has taken a radically different approach, limiting power consumption and physical size to gain performance. “I had the good fortune to become involved with supercomputing and Seymour Cray at the beginning of an era of explosive growth for high performance computing,” Rollwagen said. “Our company took a unique approach to supercomputing and ultimately became the leader of the industry. In SiCortex, I see a similar opportunity to work with an experienced technical and management team that is also taking a new approach to HPC at just the right time. In my opinion, this company represents the next generation of high performance computing.” “We are in an important time of transition, as we broaden from a product development focus to a sales, marketing and business focus,” said Dr. John Mucci, SiCortex CEO. “John Rollwagen’s wealth of experience and insight will be a tremendous benefit as we execute our business plan going forward. I have known John for a long time, and it’s great to have him on our team.” Rollwagen currently serves as a principal of Quatris Fund, an affiliate fund of St. Paul Venture Capital, formed to create, seed and mentor early-stage entrepreneurial ventures. He also serves on several public and private company boards, including PartnerRe Ltd, a global, Bermuda based reinsurance company, where he serves as Chairman. Rollwagen was a founding member of the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), an organization of chief executive officers of the 12 leading computer systems companies in the U.S. created in 1989 to identify and advocate industry positions on trade and technology policy. In 1987, he was appointed by President Reagan as a member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN). He was reappointed to this position by President Bush. “I can’t think of a more appropriate person to chair the board going forward than John Rollwagen,” said Bob Metcalfe, Ethernet inventor, 3Com founder and now general partner at Polaris Venture Partners, who has been chairman of the board since September, 2004. “I look forward to working with him at what promises to be a very exciting time at SiCortex.”