New Cray X1 Supercomputer at Oak Ridge is up to 25 Times Faster on Scientific Applications

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 2003--

High-End Computer Is 50 Percent Faster Per Processor Than Japan's Earth Simulator On Standard Climate Problem

“We believe the Cray X1 supercomputer's lead will increase substantially in larger system sizes.”

Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq NM:CRAY) today reported that the new Cray X1(TM) supercomputer is running challenging applications up to 25 times faster than previously achieved by the Department of Energy's Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

In the ORNL evaluations, the new high-end computer also has run a standard climate modeling application 50 percent faster per processor than Japan's Earth Simulator, which currently is recognized as the world's fastest supercomputer and was designed primarily to run climate modeling problems.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was selected to test the effectiveness of the new Cray X1 supercomputer, and ORNL's Center for Computational Sciences now houses a 256-processor Cray X1 system. ORNL Director Jeff Wadsworth said new funding by the DOEs Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (OASCR) and the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program has enabled significant recent advances in several application areas:

-- Los Alamos National Laboratory's widely used parallel ocean program (POP v1.4.3) has already achieved a 50 percent performance improvement on the Cray X1 system, on a processor-by-processor basis, compared to Japan's Earth Simulator.

-- Large-scale simulations of high-temperature superconductors ran 25 times faster than previously achieved.

-- An important physics application, global GYRO transport calculations, ran on the Cray X1 system 16 times faster, allowing simulations to be run for twice as long as before, and fully resolving the questions raised by a prior study.

-- Molecular dynamics simulations related to the phenomenon of photon echo ran on the new Cray X1 system eight times faster than previously achieved.

"The early speed and efficiency of the Cray X1 are exciting," said Thomas Zacharia, ORNL associate director in charge of computational sciences. "On the Cray X1, we are regularly seeing efficiencies of 30-35 percent on our applications, and in some cases up to 60-70 percent. We need to see how the Cray X1 does with thousands of processors, and hope we will be able to deploy a machine that large to advance simulation as a peer to theory and experiment. Indications so far are that a Cray X1 supercomputer of sufficient size could match or exceed anything on earth."

"Even at 256 and fewer processors, the Cray X1 system is already outperforming other U.S. supercomputers with thousands of processors, and is enabling leading researchers to advance the boundaries of science and engineering on real-world applications," said Cray Chairman and CEO Jim Rottsolk. "We believe the Cray X1 supercomputer's lead will increase substantially in larger system sizes."

Rottsolk said the Cray X1 product reflects the company's strategy to deliver high-efficiency, high bandwidth supercomputer systems.

About Cray Inc.

Cray's mission is to be the premier provider of supercomputing solutions for its customers' most challenging scientific and engineering problems. Go to www.cray.com for more information about the company.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. These include the technical challenges of developing high performance computing systems, government support of supercomputer systems research and purchases, Cray's ability to achieve reliable system software for the Cray X1 system and to scale that system software to larger configurations of Cray X1 systems, the successful porting of application programs to the Cray X1 system, reliance on third-party suppliers, Cray's ability to keep up with rapid technological change, Cray's ability to compete against larger, more established companies and innovative competitors, and general economic and market conditions. For a discussion of these and other risks, see "Factors That Could Affect Future Results" in Cray's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

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