AEROSPACE

SEATTLE & AMES, Iowa -- Cray Inc. and Iowa State University today announced an agreement for Iowa State to test software products developed by the company for its new Cray X1(TM) system, expected to be the world's most powerful supercomputer product. The two-year agreement calls for Iowa State's High Performance Computing Group to develop advanced software analysis tools, and to use these to test the performance and functionality of the growing body of software Cray is creating for the new supercomputer. In return, Cray will donate a variety of high performance computing (HPC) equipment to Iowa State. The Cray X1 product will be formally announced later this year. Last week, Cray announced that five early-production Cray X1 units were shipped to undisclosed customers, and that real work was already beginning to happen on the new supercomputers. "Iowa State's High Performance Computing Group and its director, Professor Glenn Luecke, are extremely talented at developing and using HPC analysis tools," said Cray Chairman and CEO Jim Rottsolk. "We look forward to working with them and benefiting from their unique expertise." "We're excited about continuing our work with Cray and developing software analysis tools to investigate the strengths of the Cray X1," said Luecke. "This alliance is a definite win for both parties."