Press Release

NASA's Aeronautics Research to Get Boost from SGI Altix ICE and InfiniteStorage Solution

Demand for Robust HPC Environment and Ready Access to Data Prompts Latest Investment in SGI Solutions

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (September 10, 2007)—NASA has turned to SGI (NASDAQ: SGIC) for a large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) cluster and storage solution to support computational work essential to aeronautics research.

Within its Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), NASA faces rapidly escalating demand from scientists for computer time and associated resources to store and manage the results of their computational analyses. To meet that need, the agency acquired an SGI® Altix® ICE blade system powered by 4,096 Intel® Xeon® processor cores and 4 Terabytes (TB) of memory. NASA also purchased a new SGI® InfiniteStorage 10000 solution capable of managing 240TB of data — an amount three times larger than the entire print collection of the Library of Congress.

Scientists and engineers at NASA's ARMD pursue fundamental and advanced research in an effort to transform America's air transportation system and to support future air and space vehicles. ARMD research projects often require tens of thousands of processor hours and data volumes can reach multiple terabytes. This combination puts enormous pressure on computing and storage resources, particularly as projects grow increasingly complex, and new projects are added to ARMD's mission.

"Whenever we can find ways to either shorten the time it takes for researchers to see results or to increase the level of fidelity of our simulations, we can speed the pace of discovery," said Juan J. Alonso, Director of the Fundamental Aeronautics Program at NASA. "The SGI Altix ICE system makes thousands more processor cores available for research, and will be especially useful for running simulation codes that are optimized for distributed cluster architectures. Meanwhile, our InfiniteStorage 10000 environment ensures that even the largest data sets won't create a bottleneck for users."

SGI expects to install the solution at Silicon Valley's NASA Ames Research Center in late September. Because SGI Altix ICE comes pre-installed with all system software and cluster management tools, both SGI and NASA officials anticipate the new environment will be fully productive in a short period of time.

This latest acquisition of SGI compute technology adds nearly 4,100 more processor cores to NASA's existing 10,240-core Columbia system. Also, this month NASA will install a 2,048-core SGI Altix 4700 supercomputer, the world's largest system to operate under a single instance of Linux®. All three systems run SUSE® Enterprise Linux 10 from Novell®.

New heights of space- and power-efficiency
The new SGI solution addresses NASA's need to provide more compute and storage resources while minimizing their impact on the data center. Both the SGI Altix ICE and SGI InfiniteStorage 10000 platforms feature exceptional density, so the new systems require a minimum of floor space. The InfiniteStorage 10000, for instance, can scale to 480TB of SATA drives in a space covering just slightly more than two floor tiles.

The SGI solution also helps NASA conquer the challenges of soaring electric and cooling expenses. SGI equipped SGI Altix ICE with an energy-smart power architecture that realizes more than 90 percent efficiency on its 12-volt DC front-end power supply, up to 87 percent efficiency on compute blades, and up to 76 percent efficiency at the rack level. NASA's Altix ICE systems also take advantage of SGI's new, third-generation water-cooled door design. Chilled water running through the unique hinged door carries away up to 95 percent of the heat generated by the system, thus easing the burden of cooling NASA's data center.

SGI will integrate the storage solution with the Lustre® cluster file system, administered and powered by 10 SGI® Altix® XE 240 servers, with meta data storage handled by an SGI® InfiniteStorage 220 system.

SGI | Innovation for Results™
SGI (NASDAQ: SGIC) is a leader in high-performance computing. SGI delivers a complete range of high-performance server and storage solutions along with industry-leading professional services and support that enable its customers to overcome the challenges of complex data-intensive workflows and accelerate breakthrough discoveries, innovation and information transformation. SGI helps customers solve significant challenges whether it's enhancing the quality of life through drug research, designing and manufacturing safer and more efficient cars and airplanes, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or helping enterprises manage large data. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and can be found on the Web at sgi.com.

© 2007 SGI. All rights reserved. SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks of SGI in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. Intel and Xeon 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 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.