Firms Will Collaborate On Cray's 2006 DARPA HPCS Phase 3 Proposal
SEATTLE, WA, November 14, 2005 - AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Cray Inc, (Nasdaq
NM: CRAY) today announced that they have signed an agreement that
extends their successful relationship through the end of the decade.
Cray will continue to use AMD Opteron(tm) processors for the
microprocessor-based supercomputer products Cray develops during this
period. In addition, the two firms will actively collaborate on Cray's
mid-2006 proposal for Phase 3 of the federal government's DARPA HPCS
(High Productivity Computing Systems) program.
"After an extensive review of marketplace alternatives, we selected the
AMD64 platform as the microarchitecture for our next-generation
supercomputer products," said Cray President and CEO Peter Ungaro. "In
the near-term, the AMD Opteron processor roadmap provides our customers
a smooth upgrade path to multi-core systems. Through 2010, AMD's
multi-core processor roadmap and HyperTransport(tm) technology
capabilities stand out for their ability to help meet our aggressive
performance goals. Our success working with AMD in developing the Cray
XT3(tm) and the Cray XD1(tm) systems gives us great confidence that AMD
is the right partner to help Cray advance the boundaries of high
performance computing."
Cray and AMD will work closely together on Cray's mid-2006 submission
for Phase 3 of the DARPA HPCS program. The program plans to provide
economically viable, next-generation high productivity computing systems
for the national security, scientific and industrial user communities
that are able to run applications at sustained speeds of one petaflop
(million billion calculations per second) or more by the end of the
decade.
"We anticipate our shared customers are excited about this strengthened
relationship with Cray, the leading innovator in high performance
computing, and we see this agreement as a strong vote of confidence in
AMD and our role in high performance computing," said Henri Richard,
executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at AMD.
"AMD's collaboration with Cray is not just about high performance
computing, we believe the innovation sparked by this relationship,
especially through our joint work on the DARPA HPCS proposal, could help
define the future of the IT industry."
"The goal of the HPCS program is to provide next-generation systems that
are highly robust, easy to program, and perform efficiently at very
large scales. Meeting this challenge will require an extremely strong
engineering team, with the creativity to invent new HPC solutions and
the experience to deliver them," said Steve Scott, Cray Chief Technology
Officer. " Teaming with AMD further strengthens the Cray team and
positions us to present an outstanding proposal to DARPA in spring
2006."
Today, Cray offers the Cray XT3 and Cray XD1 supercomputers, based on
the AMD Opteron processor, along with the Cray X1E(tm) supercomputer,
based on Cray custom-built vector processors. This collaboration will
further embed AMD technology in Cray's next-generation supercomputer
products, which are designed to increase performance for HPC
applications by drawing on both AMD Opteron and custom, specialized
processors.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash
memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer,
communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to
delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology
users, ranging from enterprises and governments to individual consumers.
For more information visit http://www.amd.com.
About Cray Inc.
As the global leader in HPC, Cray provides innovative supercomputing
systems that enable scientists and engineers in government, industry and
academia to meet both existing and future computational challenges.
Building on years of experience in designing, developing, marketing and
servicing the world's most advanced supercomputers, Cray offers a
comprehensive portfolio of HPC systems that deliver unrivaled sustained
performance on a wide range of applications. Go to http://www.cray.com for more
information.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are
certain factors that could cause Cray's execution to differ materially
from those anticipated by the statements above. These include the
technical challenges of developing high performance computing systems,
reliance on third-party suppliers, and retention and attraction of key
employees and managers. For a discussion of these and other risks, see
"Factors That Could Affect Future Results" in Cray's most recent Report
on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.