GOVERNMENT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- SGI (NYSE: SGI - news), a leading provider of high-performance computing, complex data management and visualization products, solutions and services for technical and creative users, today announced the availability of the SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 300 server for technical midrange and media applications. With this product line extension, the SGI(TM) Origin(TM) family of servers now offers the most powerful high-performance UNIX® computer at any price point, reportedly beating out other recent introductions, including Sun® SunFire 15000 (code-named ``StarCat''), HP rp8400 (``Keystone''), and IBM® eServer p690 (``Regatta''). The SGI Origin 300 server extends the SGI(TM) NUMAflex(TM) modular computing approach to space-saving, lower cost configurations that can be specifically tailored for high-performance computing, data archiving or media streaming applications. With its unique, modular design, the SGI Origin 300 server is able to pack tremendous performance into compact, rack-mounted systems. The base server module holds two or four MIPS® 64-bit processors, up to 4GB of memory and two disk drives in only 3.5 inches of rack space, or about the size of a briefcase. Optional components add I/O bandwidth, high-throughput SGI(TM) Total Performance 900 (TP900) storage arrays or additional system bandwidth for scalability up to 32 processors in a single, shared-memory system. Two 32-processor SGI Origin 300 systems fit into a single, industry-standard rack. ``Our creative and technical customers tend to have two major constraints: how much money they have in the budget, and how much space they have in the computer room,'' said Jan Silverman, senior vice president of marketing, SGI. ``Within those constraints, they want the most powerful system they can get. SGI packs more power into less space for less money than general enterprise systems from Sun, HP or IBM.'' SGI Origin family servers are designed exclusively for technical and creative users and offer scalability and performance beyond the capabilities of enterprise computing platforms that are much more expensive. SGI Origin 300 scales modularly to double the maximum number of processors in the HPC configuration of IBM eServer p690, at about two-thirds the cost per processor. Performance Benefits across Multiple Industries SGI designed its modular, high-performance SGI Origin server family to enable breakthrough innovations in industries such as manufacturing, government, media, energy and sciences. Examples of the benefits the SGI Origin 300 server will offer for these markets include: -- Manufacturing: Auto makers can use the SGI Origin 300 server to makecritical decisions earlier in the design process, including departmental-level virtual safety testing of models. On LS-DYNA(R) crash simulation software, SGI Origin 300 delivers about 50% more performance than comparably priced HP midrange servers, including the newly announced HP rp8400. -- Life sciences: Biochemists can use the SGI Origin 300 server to search for cures with high-throughput bioinformatics clusters. On BLAST application software, which compares protein sequences against large databases, SGI Origin 300 delivers about 50% more performance than PC running Linux(R) operating system cluster solutions with the same three-year total cost of ownership. -- Media: Digital content providers can use the SGI Origin 300 server and SGI Total Performance 900 storage system to offer video streaming capabilities on demand over networks. The new solution offers the greatest stream density in the industry, with up to 3,600 hours of video-on-demand-the equivalent of 1,800 two-hour movies-available from a single full-size rack. -- Government: The defense industry can use the SGI Origin 300 server for high-bandwidth applications such as satellite imaging and data processing for LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and SAR (synthetic aperture radar). A four-processor SGI Origin 300 server offers more than double the I/O bandwidth and scalability of a four-processor Compaq(R) ES40. Specific benchmark results are classified. Powerful Performance with the SGI Origin Family This announcement extends the SGI Origin family of servers, which leads the next generation of information technology, delivering unprecedented, scalable performance and reliability. The SGI(TM) NUMA architecture combines the reliability and affordability of networked clusters, the productive shared-memory development environment of symmetric multiprocessing, the scalability of massively parallel machines and the high-capacity memory bandwidth of vector technology. The SGI Origin family is the highest performance server with the largest single-kernel, shared-memory image available. SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 3800 easily scales with snap-together modularity to 512 processors and a terabyte of memory. All SGI Origin family servers are based on the SGI NUMAflex concept, which set the standard in modular computing by allowing independent configuration and scalability of components without any central system bandwidth limitation. These modular components isolate the CPU and memory, I/O, interconnect fabric and storage into separate ``bricks.'' Scalability is no longer measured by how many systems you can link together, but by the ability to scale the various components of your system to meet the demands of your applications. Pricing and Availability With a base configuration of two processors, 512MB memory and two front-accessible system drives, the new SGI Origin 300 server starts under $24,000 (U.S. list price) and offers independent scalability of I/O bandwidth, in-rack storage and computational power. A fully configured SGI Origin 300 system with 32 processors, 32GB memory and over a terabyte of storage sells for approximately $500,000 (U.S. list price). Systems with up to eight processors and 8GB of memory are now shipping and are available through SGI direct and indirect sales channels and solution providers. Systems using more than eight processors or using the PCI expansion module will be available later this quarter. For more information see today's feature story Rackmountable Supercomputing: SGI Announces New Server and Storage System