INDUSTRY

Mitrionics, the technology leader in programming FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) for supercomputing software acceleration, today announced that its Mitrion Platform, consisting of the Mitrion Virtual Processor and Mitrion Software Development Kit, has been successfully tested and now supports the new SGI RASC RC100 computation blade, built with dual Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs. The new RC100 from Silicon Graphics packs the power of dozens of supercomputer nodes into a single blade and the Mitrion Platform allows supercomputing applications to be written and run on FPGAs with performance of 10x to 100x greater than traditional processors. The RASC RC100 system and software-centric Mitrion Platform are ideal for software developers, scientists and researchers within areas such as bioinformatics, oil and gas, imaging and financial industries because it allows them to accelerate their supercomputing applications onto FPGAs without using any hardware design skills. Scientists and researchers strive to improve productivity by achieving faster performance in their supercomputing applications and lower power consumption in their systems. The Mitrion Platform, in conjunction with the SGI RASC RC100 and Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs, allows these requirements to be met. The Mitrion Platform also provides "pushbutton portability" between different computer systems, FPGAs and system vendors which allows supercomputing applications written for one system or FPGA to be easily transferred to new or upgraded systems. This system-independent portability saves time and resources over rewriting and retesting applications. "Mitrionics is excited to be working closely with SGI to bring the tremendous benefits of FPGA Supercomputing performance and low power requirements to scientists, researchers, and developers in the real world," stated Anders Dellson, CEO of Mitrionics, Inc. "Together, our companies are making strong progress in this emerging market segment as customers move from testing phases to broader system deployments running commercial applications." "Collaborative development with Mitrionics has enabled SGI to provide an FPGA solution that eases the implementation of FPGA technology for the HPC community, making dramatic application performance enhancements available to more users than ever before," said Bill Mannel, Director of Systems Marketing, SGI.