Australia's No. 1 Supercomputer Now Available to Researchers at APAC National Facility

Australia's No. 1 Supercomputer Now Available to Researchers at
APAC National Facility
With 1,680-Processor SGI Altix System, Scientists Nationwide Now Can Leverage
World's 26th Fastest Computing System 


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 8  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- More than 600
scientists and researchers throughout Australia now have access to the most
powerful supercomputer on the continent, as the Australian Partnership for
Advanced Computing (APAC) starts its deployment of an SGI(R) Altix(R)
supercomputer powered by 1,680 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors.

"The Australian Government has committed to fully support Australian science,"
said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO, SGI. "By supporting the APAC installation of
a world-class Altix supercomputer from SGI, Australian scientists have access
to powerful tools for simulation, innovation and discovery. This is an
important step for the country to remain competitive in the 21st Century."

Housed in the APAC National Facility at the Australian National University,
Canberra, the SGI system will assist researchers to make new discoveries in
areas such as the environment, bioinformatics, astronomy, chemistry and
materials science, according to Professor John O'Callaghan, executive director,
APAC.

The APAC system is ranked in the June 2005 Top 500 list as the world's 26th
fastest supercomputer (http://www.top500.org/). It joins other world-class SGI
Altix systems whose ability to leverage the SGI NUMAflex(TM) shared-memory
architecture places them among the fastest computers on the planet. These
include: NASA's 10,240-processor Columbia system; Japan Atomic Energy Research
Institute's 2,048-processor supercomputer; the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications' 1,024-processor Cobalt system; and a
3,328-processor Altix supercomputer soon to be deployed at Germany's Leibniz
Rechenzentrum Computing Center.

SGI Altix systems are increasingly proving essential for running complex
scientific applications, due in large part to SGI's fourth-generation
NUMAflex(TM) architecture. This unique global shared-memory architecture
enables researchers to hold large data sets entirely in memory, allowing for
faster and more interactive data analysis, and resulting in more incisive
conclusions.

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

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's 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 http://www.sgi.com/.

NOTE:  Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are
registered trademarks and NUMAflex and The Source of Innovation and Discovery
are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other
countries worldwide. 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.

   Ginny Babbitt
   650-933-4519
   
   PR Hotline [phone]
   Fax [phone]


DATASOURCE: SGI



CONTACT:  Ginny Babbitt of SGI, [phone], or , or PR

Hotline, [phone], or Fax, [phone]



Web site:  http://www.sgi.com/ 

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