SYSTEMS

Mercury Computer Systems announced today, at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists conference, the introduction of the next-generation XRi cluster systems with enhanced graphics capabilities. The newest additions to the Mercury XR Series product family are based on the latest Intel Xeon processors and chipsets, and include PCI Express, a high-bandwidth serial interconnect that supports next-generation Graphics Processor Units (GPUs), an FPGA-based accelerator, and high-speed I/O options. "By rapidly deploying the latest technology available, Mercury continues to provide a viable road map for our customers," said Didier Thibaud, Vice President and General Manager, Imaging and Visualization Solutions, Mercury Computer Systems. "Oil and gas applications require high-performance processors and systems without bottlenecks in memory access or node-to-node cluster interconnection. With the industry-standard PCI Express system bus, Gigabit Ethernet or InfiniBand interconnects, and comprehensive optimization and integration services, Mercury can provide proven, cost- effective solutions for the most demanding applications." Mercury combines its high-performance computing platform with robust software tools to provide optimized, single-source solutions for immersive installations in the oil and gas industry. The XRi-400 rack-mount compute server and the XRi-400g rack-mount visualization engine run an 800 MHz Front Side Bus, support DDR-2 memory, and employ the Xeon processors with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology, which allows more memory access. Both systems can be combined with Mercury XRS InfiniBand®-based products to provide high- performance cluster solutions for compute-intensive and visualization applications. Open Inventor® from Mercury, the object-oriented 3D graphics developer toolkit, and TGS Series amiraVR and VolumeViz, advanced data visualization software built on Open Inventor, are integrated into the next- generation XRi solutions. The latest XRi Series products are available in multiple configurations, including custom configurations for OEMs. Operating system support for Windows and Linux is standard. This allows customers in a wide range of imaging applications, including medical imaging, to leverage third-party products and public-domain expertise available for these standards as well as to protect their investments in current applications. Mercury will be demonstrating the XRi family, and Open Inventor from Mercury, and amiraVR software in Booth #2400 during the conference. The next-generation XRi systems are available to order; visit Mercury's web site at www.mc.com/xrclusters, or contact Mercury for more information. A high-resolution photograph can be downloaded from Mercury's Image Library at www.mc.com/76Systems.