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Press Release
New Dual-Core SGI Altix Systems Push Leading Applications to Unprecedented Heights 
World-Record Performance on MD Nastran, SPECjbb2005 and More Reveals How Altix Continues to Shorten Time to Results for HPC Users MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (July 18, 2006)—Silicon Graphics, Inc. (OTC: SGID) today announced that its new dual-core SGI® Altix® systems are pushing key applications to levels of performance never seen before. The servers are based on the new Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 9000 series (formerly codenamed Montecito). SGI's dual-core Altix® 4700 and Altix® 450 servers deliver double the performance of today's award-winning Altix systems at the same or lower hardware cost, while drawing less power and offering more density and flexibility for demanding, data-intensive applications. In all of SGI's major markets - including engineering, earth and life sciences, government and defense, and data management - the new servers derive blistering performance from real-world applications to shorten time to results. Engineering: MD Nastran "These results show that dual-core Altix systems can cut our customers' time to solution by as much as 60 percent," said Dr. Reza Sadeghi, vice president, product development, MSC.Software Corp. "In other words, Altix can take a two-day job and complete it overnight. For manufacturers relying on complex finite-element simulations to drive down costs, using dual-core Altix systems means more time to invest in additional simulations, sensitivity studies and what-if analyses, leading to greater innovation and even better products. The combination of Altix, next-generation Intel Itanium 2 processors, and MSC.Software's suite of enterprise simulation tools clearly deliver a true competitive advantage to our customers." Sciences and Government/Defense: Gaussian, VASP, MM5 VASP molecular dynamics code runs, on average, a stunning 108 percent faster on dual-core Altix than on a dual-core Opteron-based system. And Gaussian, one of the most popular computational chemistry applications in use throughout the world, runs 62 percent faster on dual-core Altix². "Gaussian, Inc. and SGI have worked closely together for many years to deliver top performance from SGI hardware and Gaussian software for the benefit of Gaussian users," said Dr. Michael Frisch, president, Gaussian, Inc. "Gaussian is pleased to continue this collaboration with SGI, building on the outstanding performance and scalability available today on the SGI Altix server platform and now including the Altix 450 and Altix 4700 servers with next-generation Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 processors." In weather forecasting and environmental modeling, dual-core Altix systems combine proven operational capability with industry-leading performance on applications like the PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Modeling System (MM5), which runs up to 71 percent faster² on Altix than on dual-core Opteron systems. Data Management: BEA JRockit and SPECjbb2005 Dual-core SGI Altix 4700 easily outperformed competing systems from Fujitsu Ltd., Sun Microsystems and others. The tested Altix 4700 server, powered by 128 Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 9050 CPUs and running the high-performance BEA JRockit® 5.0 Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is optimized for Intel-based servers, generated 3,772,246 SPECjbb2005 bops³ (business operations per second). All SPECjbb2005 results are posted on http://www.spec.org/jbb2005/results/jbb2005.html "These latest results demonstrate that BEA JRockit®, SGI Altix 4700 servers, and new dual-core Intel Itanium 2 processors are designed to provide a platform that is fast, stable and efficient," said Guy Churchward, General Manager of the Java Runtime Products Group at BEA Systems. "Right on the heels of delivering world-record SPECjbb2005 results on a single-core SGI Altix system, we have thrust the performance bar upward yet again with an even more powerful solution designed to help enterprises achieve new levels of reliability, scalability, manageability and simplicity." SGI announced its dual-core Altix 4700 and Altix 450 blade systems in June. (See "SGI Launches New Mid-Range Altix 450 Servers and Doubles Performance of Altix 4700 Blades"). Ideal for HPC environments with demanding data-intensive workloads, the dual-core Altix 4700 system scales from 8 to 512 CPU sockets (up to 1,024 processor cores) and can accommodate up to 6TB of globally shared memory in a single system while delivering a teraflop of performance in a small-footprint rack. At the mid-range, SGI Altix 450 clusters and servers deliver up to 2.5 times the system performance of the current Altix® 350® server at a lower cost. Like Altix 4700 systems, Altix 450 servers can be configured to maximize density, I/O or memory, or mixed to accommodate any workflow. Each Altix 450 system can scale to 38 Intel Itanium 2 sockets (up to 76 processor cores) and up to 456GB of globally addressable memory. Pricing and Availability SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery™ Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and 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. JRockit is a registered trademark of BEA Systems, Inc. SPEC and the benchmark name SPECjbb2005 are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. 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 reader 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 ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, 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.
¹ Details on competing system results available at: http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/prod_support/nastran/performance/v05_sngl.cfm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
