INDUSTRY

Hochstleistungsrechenzentrum Stuttgart (HLRS) -- the Stuttgart High Performance Computing Center -- extended its long-term relationship with Cray Inc. by awarding Cray an order to replace its existing Cray T3E-900/512 system with an Opteron-based high performance computing system and related services. Financial terms were not disclosed. The 128-node, 256-processor system with a peak performance of one teraflop (one trillion calculations per second) was installed recently at HLRS' facility on the University of Stuttgart campus and was put into operation. The system will mainly serve as a university-wide resource that is available to faculty, staff and students for a wide range of research activities, according to HLRS Director Dr. Michael Resch. In addition, the new Opteron-based system will be made available to the industrial partners of HLRS through its public-private joint venture, hww. "We are excited by Cray's re-emergence as an important force in high-performance computing," Dr. Resch said. "With this order, we will keep a close cooperation with one of the leading vendors. We will also get a chance to acquire a system that merges the potential of one of the most interesting and attractive processors with the technological know-how of Cray." "We look forward to this continued partnership with HLRS. We are pleased to be partnering with one of Europe's leading high-performance computing centers and by their active interest in Cray's vision and roadmap," said Ulla Thiel, Cray's director of sales for Europe. Resch said HLRS users predominantly turned to the 461-gigaflop Cray T3E system for physics applications, which can make efficient use of larger processor counts. Cray's mission is to be the premier provider of supercomputing solutions for its customers' most challenging scientific and engineering problems. Go to www.cray.com for more information about the company. HLRS is a German National High Performance Computing Center. It serves researchers with access to state-of-the-art supercomputers and supports them in computational science. Additionally HLRS provides supercomputer resources to industry through its hww public-private joint venture with Porsche and T-Systems.