ACADEMIA

LOS ANGELES -- Today at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Super Computer, Inc. (SCI), the world's leading game hosting and middleware solution provider, announced it is working with AMD and RackSaver to unleash the world's first AMD Opteron(TM) processor-based cluster. The 44 dual-node cluster (total 88, 1.6 GHz AMD Opteron processors), known as Project Avalanche, was developed in cooperation between SCI, RackSaver and AMD. The cluster is also the first gaming cluster to natively run 32- and 64bit game titles simultaneously. Its main function will be to run the backend for the extremely popular Americas Army Game, produced by the U.S. Army. The use of 64-bit game-server code will allow for better performance, stability and will improve the cost/benefit model for online high-speed game-server deployments by an estimated 15-20%. Americas Army will be the first game to operate from the Avalanche Opteron Cluster, followed by other game titles converted to 64-bit, such as Unreal Tournament 2003 and Counter-Strike, scheduled to be deployed by SCI later this year. The Army game will be served from the cluster at the E3 show, and visitors to the Army booth during E3, will be able to see and play on this next-generation gaming platform. "The Army prides itself on using the highest technology available to communicate with and provide information to our soldiers," said Colonel Casey Wardynski, project originator and director. "We are mirroring this effort with the America's Army game by working with industry's leading technology providers to provide Americas Army players with the best possible virtual soldier experience." The Army is currently utilizing SCI's supercomputer clusters to deliver Americas Army online game-server access with unsurpassed speed, reliability and value. The Jupiter cluster, used for the Americas Army: Operations game, was presented by the Army and SCI at the Super Computing Convention (SC2002) in Baltimore, MD, and at that time was rated one of the 50 fastest clustered computers in the world. The U.S. Army recently reached two great milestones with the America's Army game. The Americas Army team reported that 1 million players have gone through virtual basic training in the Americas Army: Operations game. In addition, since its public release on July 4th, 2002, gamers have played more than 130 million missions, many of these on the Jupiter Cluster. "The ability to migrate game instances (processes) from one piece of hardware to another in real-time using high-speed memory replication, socket- migration and slip-stream proxies are all trademark innovations by SCI and is the level of know-how come to be expected in an industry with this level of explosive growth," said William Pantoja, CTO of Super Computer, Inc. "Our core systems are all being migrated to take advantage of this new architecture. The ability to allow any game title to be part of our pool of resources on our clusters, just by making the dedicated server side code for Linux or even have our partners convert it to Linux from any other platform out there, gives the game industry the ability to out-source the increasingly important role of having the online playing strategy ready by launch date, with no or minimal lead time by using SCI's complete turnkey solutions." The upgrade to a 64-bit platform also allows SCI to offer an even more versatile control system, the core of SCI's platform, that gets the added benefits of the memory handling on the AMD Opteron(TM) processor chipset, and even allows to expand the number of nodes that can run large instances (processes) sharing resources across the entire platform, like persistent online worlds, the other simultaneous feature of the Avalanche Cluster. "Super Computer, Inc. was created for the estimated 60 million online computer game players in order to improve the quality of their online gaming play," said Jesper Jensen, CEO and Founder of Super Computer Inc. "We're excited to be working with AMD to bring the world's first AMD Opteron(TM) processor-based cluster to the U.S. Army's highly successful Americas Army Game. SCI's unique, state-of-the-art products and services along with its lead position in the gaming industry will continue to help the Army deliver the best gaming experience to its audience and broaden the community that has made Americas Army one of the most popular games on the Web." "AMD Opteron processors, combined with the high-performance cluster technology of SCI, and the reliability and innovation of systems made by RackSaver will provide unmatched performance for native 32- and 64-bit computing for the U.S. Army and other customers who demand peak performance," said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD's Microprocessor Business Unit. "SCI and RackSaver have created an AMD Opteron processor-based cluster that will scale to meet even the demanding needs of enterprise customers who require world-class 32- or 64-bit computing." SCI chose one of the best hardware solution vendors in the industry, RackSaver, based on their continuous leadership in high-density supercomputing performance and technology. RackSaver built this next-generation compact cluster using its innovative, patent-pending Vertical Cooling System. "We are proud to have incorporated 88 AMD Opteron processors in the worlds first Opteron based cluster, The BladeRack XT," said David Driggers, CEO of RackSaver. RackSaver is known by Fortune 500 companies for creating high-end and innovative solutions. RackSaver will build the next generation of Avalanche Clusters for SCI with 88 Dual nodes (176 CPUs) later this year, for the European gaming market. RackSaver also created the hardware design and specifications for SCI's Jupiter Clusters. "Super Computer, Inc. has a commitment to its customers to test every product and technology we sell to determine how it enhances the gaming environment," said Jay Majumdar, vice president of Sales for SCI. "AMD's breakthrough 64-bit computing platform and SCI's powerful cluster technology provide the ultimate combination of advanced functionality and powerful cluster performance in one ultra-compact solution." SCI has also announced partnership with Gentoo Technologies to develop an optimized 64-bit version of the extremely effective and highly optimized Gentoo Linux Platform. This will allow SCI to build an even faster and more robust version of the Avalanche Cluster. SCI is currently using Gentoo on many critical support components throughout the SCI network, and are planning to convert the current cluster technology to be compatible with Gentoo for better reliability and performance.