SEATTLE - Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. today reported that it has shipped five early-production units of the new Cray X1 (TM) system, expected to be the world's most powerful supercomputer product. The five early-production Cray X1 systems were shipped to undisclosed customer sites. Three have completed customer acceptance tests. The other two are expected to be accepted soon, the company said. All five systems are scheduled to be upgraded in the future. The Cray X1 product will be formally announced later this year. "Shipping the first Cray X1 systems on schedule is an important milestone for the product, the company and the high-performance computing community," said Cray Inc. chairman and CEO Jim Rottsolk. "Today, there is a real lack of high-bandwidth, high-efficiency supercomputer options to tackle the world's most consequential computing problems. We are seeing encouraging demand for the Cray X1 product from government, industry and academia." Rottsolk said he is pleased that three of the systems have already passed acceptance tests and users are beginning to do real work on the new Cray X1 supercomputers.