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Wheat Ridge, Colorado - Aspen Systems, a world leader in the design, manufacturing and service of a wide array of custom Linux, UNIX and Windows(R)-based computing solutions, announced today the partnership with High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi) to build the eighth fastest supercomputer in the world. Aspen Systems provided HPTi with custom Linux Clusters with integrated Myrinet interconnects to deliver this supercomputer to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Forecast Systems Laboratory (NOAA). "As the hardware provider for the Linux Cluster at NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, Aspen Systems is proud to have an integral role in building the supercomputer that was listed as number eight on the highly anticipated high-performance 20th edition Supercomputer “Top500” List. We are also pleased to announce that this cluster enables NOAA's supercomputer to be the second fastest Intel(R)-based supercomputer in the world," stated Aspen Systems' CEO, Mr. Steve Spring. The Peak Performance of a cluster in the Supercomputer Top500 List is the ‘best’ performance as measured by the LINPACK Benchmark. LINPACK was chosen, because it is widely used and performance numbers are available for almost all relevant systems. Aspen Systems' cluster has 768 nodes (768 dual 2.2 GH Xeon(TM)) and operates at 3.3 Teraflops, which is 3.3 trillion calculations per second. A supercomputer that operates at this speed can be used for NOAA's specific needs such as weather forecasting, oceanic research and other climate-based modeling, among many other applications that demand high-performance computing. "NOAA wanted a system architecture that could grow with its computational demands over the next five years and enable it to lead the development of the next generation of mesoscale models. NOAA's Director described the HPC system designed by HPTi and Aspen Systems with Myrinet interconnects as the future of American supercomputing, noting that it will allow NOAA to continue to pioneer the application of parallel computing technology for weather forecasting," said Mr. Timothy Keenan, COO and Executive Vice President of HPTi. As an original Myrinet authorized reseller and leading provider of Myrinet clusters worldwide, Aspen Systems integrated Myricom's Myrinet Technology into NOAA's supercomputer. After thorough investigation and consultation with HPTi and Aspen Systems, NOAA determined that Myricom's Myrinet interconnects provided the best performance, scalability and reliability for this cluster. NOAA also felt Myrinet's scalability would allow for future growth of the Aspen Systems' Linux Cluster. "Because Aspen Systems is not only an authorized reseller of the Myrinet product, but a leading manufacturer of Beowulf Clusters, they have the ability to integrate Myricom's Myrinet Technology directly into their world-class products. Aspen Systems has successfully delivered hundreds of Myrinet clusters to many diverse markets segments, including Weather Prediction, Oil and Gas, Genetics Research, Animation and developers of computational-science applications," said Dr. Charles Seitz, CEO/CTO of Myricom.