APPLICATIONS

SEATTLE - Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. today announced that Ford Motor Company has ordered, installed and accepted a Linux™-based cluster with 192 processors at its data center in Dearborn, Michigan. Financial terms were not disclosed. Ford engineers will use this supercomputer for vehicle safety simulations in order to improve vehicle performance. Vehicle simulation is a well-established engineering design tool in the Ford development process. The Cray cluster will join other Cray supercomputers Ford currently operates at several locations worldwide, including Cray SV1ex™ and Cray T90™ systems. Lori Kaiser, Cray vice president of marketing and strategic planning, said, "Cray is focusing its entry into the commercial cluster market on the automotive industry and on general Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) applications. Depending on the customer's needs, we have solutions that team our expertise and support with the right mix of hardware and software. We at Cray can combine a price performance advantage from commodity microprocessors with over twenty-five years of experience designing, installing and supporting large complex systems for industry, government and research." "We believe that our cluster offerings will provide many of our customers with a cost effective solution," Kaiser continued. "And our Cray X1™ product and other high-end systems will complement these offerings by providing customers with extreme performance for their most challenging next generation problems." "Ford has been an important Cray customer for many years," said James Rottsolk, Cray chairman and CEO. "We are proud that an industry leader of Ford's stature continues to rely on Cray for crucial computing needs."