RIKEN recently chose Altix 350, based on 16 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors and featuring 16GB of memory, as the host computer of its MDGRAPE-3 system, which also incorporates a special chip for force calculations. RIKEN's SC2004 demonstration will show how this low-cost, high-performance accelerator will become an important solution for computational biology, computer-aided drug design, nanotechnology and other demanding scientific applications. MDGRAPE-3 is a special-purpose computer system for molecular dynamics simulations developed by RIKEN to accelerate calculations of protein models, the most time-consuming part in simulations.

By combining a 16-processor Altix 350 and eight MDGRAPE-3 units, RIKEN expects to achieve 32 teraflops (trillion calculations per second) of performance in a single rack. At RIKEN's Genomics Science Center in Yokohama, Japan, researchers plan to build an even more powerful simulation system capable of generating a full petaflop (thousand trillion operations per second) of performance using 32 racks totaling 512 Itanium 2 processors and 6,144 MDGRAPE-3 chips.

"Molecular dynamics simulations present an exceptionally difficult test for even the most powerful of today's computer systems, which is why RIKEN worked to develop the MDGRAPE-3 solution to address this and other demanding fields of study," said Makoto Taiji, Ph.D., Team Leader of High Performance Biocomputing Research Team RIKEN. "The versatility and leading price/performance of the Altix 350 system made it an ideal host computer for the MDGRAPE-3 simulation system, while the Altix 350 system's remarkable scalability will allow us to extend MDGRAPE-3 to a full petaflop of performance."

"With Altix 350 in widespread use at commercial, government and research customer sites around the world, it is exciting to see another ingenious application of this powerful and broadly adaptable mid-range system," said Dave Parry senior vice president and general manager, Server and Platform Group, SGI. "As the RIKEN's latest demonstration shows, Altix 350 achieves the price/performance and scalability that make it a strategic element for everything from high-performance computing deployments to departmental technical computing configurations."

SGI Altix 350 provides the performance and technology of SGI Altix at a breakthrough price point. Altix 350 delivers a superior Linux(R) OS-based alternative to the proprietary solutions that dominate the technical mid-range market. This mid-range powerhouse delivers more real-world performance than any other system in its class, and provides breakthrough capabilities for technical database and traditional cluster applications. Its modular "expand on demand" architecture allows users to independently scale processors, memory, and I/O, enabling them to cost-effectively build exactly the system they need, and reconfigure it easily as requirements change.

Altix 350 incorporates the same high-performance shared-memory SGI(R) NUMAflex(TM) architecture and optimized Linux tools originally implemented in the award-winning Altix(R) 3000 servers and supercomputers. It supports up to 16 processors in a single system image, and features the industry leading 6.4GB/second SGI(R) NUMAlink(TM) interconnect.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM)

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE:SGI) , is a leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.

NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks, and NUMAflex, NUMAlink and The Source of Innovation and Discovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The viewer is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the impact of competitive markets, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, the acceptance of applicable technologies by markets and customers, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.

Source: SGI

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