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Silicon Graphics recently completed the second quarter of its fiscal year 2004 with sales momentum for its award-winning SGI(R) Altix(TM) 3000 family of servers and superclusters, SGI(R) InfiniteStorage family of products, Silicon Graphics(R) Onyx4(TM) UltimateVision(TM) systems and Silicon Graphics(R) Tezro(TM) visual workstations. The just-announced SGI(R) Altix(TM) 350, a mid-range technical server, posted early sales in the second quarter alongside key Altix 3000 family sales: -- An eight-processor SGI Altix 350 server proved an ideal fit for Maison des Sciences de l'Homme-Alpes (MSH-Alpes) in Grenoble, France, whose research teams required a mid-range server to conduct Geographical Information Systems and statistical studies. As MSH-Alpes moves more of its installation to a Linux(R) and Open Source environment, the Altix 350 system's shared memory architecture, Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors, and built-in system administration tools will allow the research center to drive its custom-coded applications with optimal performance and efficiency. The center's demanding technical environment tests systems with complex statistical analysis and Monte Carlo (or random number generation) problems, which led to the selection of the Altix 350 server. -- To process 3D image sequences of the cardiovascular system in a distributed and parallel environment, the Computer Vision Group within the Aragon Institute of Engineering Research and the Department Electronic Engineering and Communications-both at Spain's University of Zaragoza-required a mid-range technical server capable of providing a large amount of shared memory and multi-processor computing with significant, price/performance advantages over previously available systems. To address those needs, the university purchased a 14-processor SGI Altix 350 system with 14GB of memory. The university's multi-platform environment will benefit significantly from the Altix 350 system's 64-bit Linux environment and shared-memory architecture. This system is part of a more general grid computing test bed facility recently built with support from the Spanish Ministry of Science & Technology and the University of Zaragoza. -- Spain's University of Valencia purchased a 100-processor SGI Altix supercluster with 200GB of memory and 1.4TB of disk storage. Hundreds of researchers will use the Altix supercluster for studies in astrophysics, physics, chemistry and bioinformatics. The cluster features two partitions-one with 72 processors and the other with 28-and uses a four-processor Altix 350 system with 36GB of memory. At the university's Molecular Sciences Institute, for instance, the system will be used to fuel the intensive numerical calculations required for research in quantum chemistry and molecular physics methods. The university selected the Altix supercluster because its work requires a solution that provides excellent parallel and scalar performance, as well as flexibility in making system memory available to all processors. The University of Valencia cited the Altix system's shared-memory architecture, Intel Itanium 2 processors, and easy portability to its 64-bit Linux OS as other key selection criteria. -- NASA purchased a 256-processor SGI Altix 3000 system for use in ocean modeling and simulation and other computer-intensive research and engineering missions for the agency. The system was integrated with another 256-processor Altix system at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. NASA's efforts led to the historic implementation of the world's first 512-processor Linux OS-based system running as a single system image. -- The Computer and Computational Sciences Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) purchased a 256-processor SGI Altix 3000 system with 256GB of memory and 50 terabytes of direct-attached storage via an SGI(R) InfiniteStorage TP9500 array. The shared-memory architecture of the SGI Altix system was a key factor in the purchase, particularly as it is expected to shorten the time it takes to find solutions to some world-class computing problems. At LANL, the new Altix system will drive applications with a core national interest, including codes related to global climate, particle transport, fluid dynamics, biotechnology, manufacturing and critical infrastructure. -- The technical computing department at SKODA AUTO, a major Czech manufacturer that is part of the VW Group, purchased a 96-processor SGI Altix 3000 supercluster and 16TB SGI(R) Total Performance 9300 storage system. Intended for CAE processing applications, the system will be integrated into a storage area network environment. The system, comprising 96 Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1.3GHz, with 192GB memory and SGI TP9300 storage, will be used mainly for car crash analysis with PAM-CRASH(R) (ESI Group) and fluid dynamics analysis with FLUENT (Fluent Inc.). This new system will provide SKODA AUTO with additional processing power of close to 500 GFLOPS and allow the company to reduce processing times, thereby optimizing decisions in automobile development and design efficiency, quality and safety. -- To address a new class of challenging scientific problems at the University of Pune in India, the recently established Center for Modeling and Simulation has joined with the university's Physics, Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Computer Science and Statistics departments in purchasing a 16-processor SGI Altix 3000 system with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage. In making its selection, the university cited the Altix system's ability to scale to 128 processors in a single system image, the Open Source advantages of the Linux OS, and the scalable power of Intel Itanium 2 processors. -- The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies purchased a 32-processor SGI Altix 3000 system outfitted with 32GB of system memory and 250GB of disk storage. The new Altix system will serve as a platform for multidisciplinary design optimization of aerospace systems. Running custom computational fluid dynamics and finite element structural analysis programs, students and researchers will be able to collaborate on sophisticated aerospace design problems. The advantages of operating the Altix as a single system image, in addition to the high-speed SGI(R) NUMAflex(TM) interconnect fabric, led the university to select SGI Altix. -- The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in northeast England recently selected SGI solutions for an integrated HPC, visualization and complex storage management installation within its North East Regional e-Science Centre. This installation includes a 32-processor SGI Altix system with 80GB of memory and 3TB of local disk storage; an eight-processor, four-pipe Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision system; a fully redundant Storage Area Network (SAN) fabric with dual metadata servers; 10.2TB of SGI(R) InfiniteStorage TP9300 Fibre Channel storage array; an StorageTek(R) L40 dual tape drive library, SGI(R) InfiniteStorage Shared Fileysystem CXFS(TM) connecting each component via DMF for hierarchical storage management, and a Barco(R) MoVELite reconfigurable CAVE display with DLP projectors. In addition to price/performance, breadth of solution and reliability, SGI Professional Services expertise was also key to the sale. -- Through an academic consortium headed by the Department of Theoretical Physics, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, purchased an Altix 3000 system driven by 28 Intel Itanium 2 processors and 36GB of system memory. The system, backed by an SGI InfiniteStorage solution with 1TB of capacity, will help Strathclyde physicists better understand how to work with parallel computing systems. The university then plans to leverage the Altix system's Open Source environment to make it more easily available to researchers from multiple disciplines, including architecture, chemistry and biology. Strathclyde selected Altix over a cluster solution because its easy administration will allow a wider population of users to leverage the computing resource without extensive training. The second quarter saw the introduction of the new SGI InfiniteStorage Serial ATA (SATA) solutions, which provide economical secondary disk storage for high-performance computing applications. The new SATA storage systems were developed by LSI Logic Storage Systems and marketed by SGI under the InfiniteStorage brand through an OEM arrangement. Serial ATA is a new technology that brings a much lower cost-per-megabyte to the market, greatly narrowing the price gap between disk and tape. This is good news for customers, particularly in media and government applications, where they need to store terabytes of information as cost-effectively as possible, but they prefer disk-based storage to tape-based. Among the SGI InfiniteStorage wins this quarter: -- EFILM, a leading digital film laboratory in Hollywood and long-time SGI customer, purchased an additional 8TB of direct Fibre Channel storage for upgrading its SGI TP9300 storage system. EFILM also added 63TB of Serial ATA storage as a nearline archive for its existing SGI(R) CFXS(TM) SAN, bringing its total SGI InfiniteStorage capacity to more than 100TB. EFILM uses SGI(R) Onyx(R) family graphics supercomputers to create digital intermediates, which include high-resolution scanning, color correction, laser film recording and video mastering. Using proprietary software developed on the SGI(R) IRIX(R) operating system, EFILM creates one high-resolution digital distribution master that can be used for film output, digital cinema releases, and home video, all designed to meet national and international theatrical and video delivery requirements. EFILM is wholly owned by Panavision and Deluxe Laboratories. -- To provide the throughput needed for high-speed film scanning and recording data transfers, Hollywood's venerable Pacific Title & Art Studio is expanding its post production offerings with the purchase of an SGI(R) Origin(R) 350 and the addition of 16TB of Fibre Channel storage on its existing SGI TP9500; the company also added 38.5TB of TP9500 Serial ATA storage as nearline archive for its existing SGI InfiniteStorage CXFS shared filesystem SAN. A very long-term SGI customer utilizing a number of SGI(R) Origin(R) and SGI Onyx family supercomputers, Pacific Title is experiencing explosive growth in a number of areas, including scanning 35mm film negatives into digital format, creating visual effects, performing film restoration and archiving. The company, with facilities in Hollywood and West Hollywood, also produces a majority of all U.S. movie trailers for theatrical distribution. -- Image Film, a digital cinema and post production laboratory in Barcelona, Spain, has acquired SGI InfiniteStorage solutions for its central repository expansion. Included in the purchase were an SGI(R) Origin(R) 300 server, 8TB SGI TP9500 storage system, 16-port Fibre Channel switch and 10 SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS licenses for IRIX, Windows(R) 2000 and Windows NT(R) OS clients-enabling collaboration and the sharing of files between different clients on the storage area network without duplicating files. As a result, the SGI CXFS SAN environment dramatically increases productivity. -- Crawford Communications, the largest television network operation in the Southeast, provides satellite origination and a full range of high-end post-production services to dozens of cable TV networks as well as an international uplink at their headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Crawford Communications purchased fully redundant SGI Origin 350 CXFS servers and 4TB of SGI TP9500 for their infrastructure for satellite operations. The SGI InfiniteStorage infrastructure will be used to stage content following ingest, between editing and play-to-air. Like many broadcasting and production facilities, Crawford is transitioning from a tape-based workflow to a tapeless workflow that will include a file-based library. The SGI InfiniteStorage solution was chosen because it provided a robust environment for the infrastructure and scalability in both terms of bandwidth and capacity. -- Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) UK plc has selected SGI InfiniteStorage solutions as part of an effort to optimize the back-up and recovery of data within CGE&Y's outsourcing delivery infrastructure. Partners working on the project include SGI, Atempo and StorageTek, who will provide the underpinning technology, which includes an SGI Origin 350 server and an InfiniteStorage TP9500 RAID storage array designed to significantly reduce back-up times for CGE&Y's Storage Area Backup and Recovery Engine, also known as SABRE. SGI also made a strong showing at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) this quarter utilizing the SGI(R) Mobile Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art customized 18-wheel truck equipped with SGI's latest technology solutions for high-performance computing, storage, and advanced visualization. The company continues to be the industry leader for cutting-edge visualization systems for Command and Control applications, Homeland Security, and Simulation and Training. Among the visualization sales wins this quarter were: -- Lockheed Martin awarded a $3.6 million contract to SGI in the second quarter for the installation of Night Vision Goggles (NVG) simulation on 10 currently fielded and four additional pilot training systems, which will be part of the Air Force F-16 program. The 14 Mission Training Centers (MTCs) are powered by SGI(R) Onyx(R) 3000 family graphics supercomputers that function as image generators that realistically and precisely simulate, in a 360-degree environment, the same multi-role functions that F-16 fighter aircraft perform in combat missions. The simulated NVG implementation produces imagery on a helmet-mounted display that accurately replicates what the pilot would see through actual night-vision goggles. The addition of NVG simulation capabilities to the flight simulators will dramatically increase the flight safety and mission effectiveness of F-16 pilots. This follows a $1.6 million contract in the first quarter to develop and build a prototype NVG simulation system to upgrade F-16 pilot training systems for the U.S. Air Force F-16 MTC program. -- To aid in its efforts to pinpoint top producing wells, British Gas Exploration purchased a four-processor Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision graphics supercomputer with 12GB of system memory and four graphics pipes. The system was chosen in part for its ability to accelerate complex subsurface visualizations using InsideReality software. -- Schlumberger Cambridge Research, a UK-based R&D facility for international oilfield and information services company Schlumberger Limited, bolstered its 3D well planning and seismic volume interpretation operations with the purchase of an Silicon Graphics Onyx4 graphics supercomputer with a dual-pipe UltimateVision visualization system. The four-processor Onyx system incorporates 4GB of memory and was selected because of its leading price/performance, and its energy- and space-efficient design. -- Addressing its growing number of multi-resolution television productions, Universal Images, a leading Southfield, Michigan post-production facility, has purchased eight Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations with Discreet smoke(R) HD and five Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations with Discreet flame(R) for editing and visual effects. Handling primarily commercial work, Universal Images posted hundreds of Thanksgiving and Christmas sale ads as well as promotional presentations for automobile manufacturers at this month's North American Auto Show in Detroit.