Vendor Spotlight:
SGI ANNOUNCES KEY SALES WINS FOR SECOND QUARTER
 Silicon Graphics recently completed the second quarter of its fiscal year 2004
with sales momentum for its award-winning SGI Altix 3000 family of servers and
superclusters, SGI InfiniteStorage family of products, Silicon Graphics Onyx4
UltimateVision systems and Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations. The
company made strong appearances at Supercomputing in Phoenix, Arizona and
I/ITSEC in Orlando, Florida and posted key sales wins in its five target
markets: government and defense, sciences, manufacturing, energy and media.
At Supercomputing 2003, SGI Altix and Visualization Systems captured six top
spots in the 2003 HPCwire Innovation Awards-five Readers Choice Awards and an
Editor's Choice Award. The Altix 3000 family of servers and superclusters was
also named "Favorite Server" in Linux Journal's annual Readers' Choice Awards,
following being named Product of the Year by the editors of Linux Journal in
July and "Best of Show" honors at Linux World Conference & Expo 2003. The
just-announced SGI Altix 350, a mid-range technical server, posted early sales
in the second quarter alongside key Altix 3000 family sales:
An eight-processor SGI Altix 350 server proved an ideal fit for Maison des
Sciences de l'Homme-Alpes (MSH-Alpes) in Grenoble, France, whose research
teams required a mid-range server to conduct Geographical Information Systems
and statistical studies. As MSH-Alpes moves more of its installation to a
Linux and Open Source environment, the Altix 350 system's shared memory
architecture, Intel Itanium 2 processors, and built-in system administration
tools will allow the research center to drive its custom-coded applications
with optimal performance and efficiency. The center's demanding technical
environment tests systems with complex statistical analysis and Monte Carlo
(or random number generation) problems, which led to the selection of the
Altix 350 server. To process 3D image sequences of the cardiovascular system in a distributed
and parallel environment, the Computer Vision Group within the Aragon
Institute of Engineering Research and the Department Electronic Engineering
and Communications-both at Spain's University of Zaragoza-required a mid-range
technical server capable of providing a large amount of shared memory and
multi-processor computing with significant, price/performance advantages over
previously available systems. To address those needs, the university purchased
a 14-processor SGI Altix 350 system with 14GB of memory. The university's
multi-platform environment will benefit significantly from the Altix 350
system's 64-bit Linux environment and shared-memory architecture. This system
is part of a more general grid computing test bed facility recently built with
support from the Spanish Ministry of Science & Technology and the University
of Zaragoza. Spain's University of Valencia purchased a 100-processor SGI Altix
supercluster with 200GB of memory and 1.4TB of disk storage. Hundreds of
researchers will use the Altix supercluster for studies in astrophysics,
physics, chemistry and bioinformatics. The cluster features two partitions-one
with 72 processors and the other with 28-and uses a four-processor Altix 350
system with 36GB of memory. At the university's Molecular Sciences Institute,
for instance, the system will be used to fuel the intensive numerical
calculations required for research in quantum chemistry and molecular physics
methods. The university selected the Altix supercluster because its work
requires a solution that provides excellent parallel and scalar performance,
as well as flexibility in making system memory available to all processors.
The University of Valencia cited the Altix system's shared-memory
architecture, Intel Itanium 2 processors, and easy portability to its 64-bit
Linux OS as other key selection criteria. NASA purchased a 256-processor SGI Altix 3000 system for use in ocean
modeling and simulation and other computer-intensive research and engineering
missions for the agency. The system was integrated with another 256-processor
Altix system at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. NASA's
efforts led to the historic implementation of the world's first 512-processor
Linux OS-based system running as a single system image. The Computer and Computational Sciences Division at Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL) purchased a 256-processor SGI Altix 3000 system with 256GB
of memory and 50 terabytes of direct-attached storage via an SGI
InfiniteStorage TP9500 array. The shared-memory architecture of the SGI Altix
system was a key factor in the purchase, particularly as it is expected to
shorten the time it takes to find solutions to some world-class computing
problems. At LANL, the new Altix system will drive applications with a core
national interest, including codes related to global climate, particle
transport, fluid dynamics, biotechnology, manufacturing and critical
infrastructure. The technical computing department at SKODA AUTO, a major Czech
manufacturer that is part of the VW Group, purchased a 96-processor SGI Altix
3000 supercluster and 16TB SGI Total Performance 9300 storage system. Intended
for CAE processing applications, the system will be integrated into a storage
area network environment. The system, comprising 96 Intel Itanium 2 processors
at 1.3GHz, with 192GB memory and SGI TP9300 storage, will be used mainly for
car crash analysis with PAM-CRASH (ESI Group) and fluid dynamics analysis with
FLUENT (Fluent Inc.). This new system will provide SKODA AUTO with additional
processing power of close to 500 GFLOPS and allow the company to reduce
processing times, thereby optimizing decisions in automobile development and
design efficiency, quality and safety. To address a new class of challenging scientific problems at the University
of Pune in India, the recently established Center for Modeling and Simulation
has joined with the university's Physics, Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Computer
Science and Statistics departments in purchasing a 16-processor SGI Altix 3000
system with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage. In making its selection, the
university cited the Altix system's ability to scale to 128 processors in a
single system image, the Open Source advantages of the Linux OS, and the
scalable power of Intel Itanium 2 processors. The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies purchased a 32-
processor SGI Altix 3000 system outfitted with 32GB of system memory and 250GB
of disk storage. The new Altix system will serve as a platform for
multidisciplinary design optimization of aerospace systems. Running custom
computational fluid dynamics and finite element structural analysis programs,
students and researchers will be able to collaborate on sophisticated
aerospace design problems. The advantages of operating the Altix as a single
system image, in addition to the high-speed SGI NUMAflex interconnect fabric,
led the university to select SGI Altix. The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in northeast England recently
selected SGI solutions for an integrated HPC, visualization and complex
storage management installation within its North East Regional e-Science
Centre. This installation includes a 32-processor SGI Altix system with 80GB
of memory and 3TB of local disk storage; an eight-processor, four-pipe Silicon
Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision system; a fully redundant Storage Area Network
(SAN) fabric with dual metadata servers; 10.2TB of SGI InfiniteStorage TP9300
Fibre Channel storage array; an StorageTek L40 dual tape drive library, SGI
InfiniteStorage Shared Fileysystem CXFS connecting each component via DMF for
hierarchical storage management, and a Barco MoVELite reconfigurable CAVE
display with DLP projectors. In addition to price/performance, breadth of
solution and reliability, SGI Professional Services expertise was also key to
the sale. Through an academic consortium headed by the Department of Theoretical
Physics, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, purchased an
Altix 3000 system driven by 28 Intel Itanium 2 processors and 36GB of system
memory. The system, backed by an SGI InfiniteStorage solution with 1TB of
capacity, will help Strathclyde physicists better understand how to work with
parallel computing systems. The university then plans to leverage the Altix
system's Open Source environment to make it more easily available to
researchers from multiple disciplines, including architecture, chemistry and
biology. Strathclyde selected Altix over a cluster solution because its easy
administration will allow a wider population of users to leverage the
computing resource without extensive training.
The second quarter saw the introduction of the new SGI InfiniteStorage Serial
ATA (SATA) solutions, which provide economical secondary disk storage for
high-performance computing applications. The new SATA storage systems were
developed by LSI Logic Storage Systems and marketed by SGI under the
InfiniteStorage brand through an OEM arrangement. Serial ATA is a new
technology that brings a much lower cost-per-megabyte to the market, greatly
narrowing the price gap between disk and tape. This is good news for
customers, particularly in media and government applications, where they need
to store terabytes of information as cost-effectively as possible, but they
prefer disk-based storage to tape-based. Among the SGI InfiniteStorage wins
this quarter:
EFILM, a leading digital film laboratory in Hollywood and long-time SGI
customer, purchased an additional 8TB of direct Fibre Channel storage for
upgrading its SGI TP9300 storage system. EFILM also added 63TB of Serial ATA
storage as a nearline archive for its existing SGI CFXS SAN, bringing its
total SGI InfiniteStorage capacity to more than 100TB. EFILM uses SGI Onyx
family graphics supercomputers to create digital intermediates, which include
high-resolution scanning, color correction, laser film recording and video
mastering. Using proprietary software developed on the SGI IRIX operating
system, EFILM creates one high-resolution digital distribution master that can
be used for film output, digital cinema releases, and home video, all designed
to meet national and international theatrical and video delivery requirements.
EFILM is wholly owned by Panavision and Deluxe Laboratories. To provide the throughput needed for high-speed film scanning and recording
data transfers, Hollywood's venerable Pacific Title & Art Studio is expanding
its post production offerings with the purchase of an SGI Origin 350 and the
addition of 16TB of Fibre Channel storage on its existing SGI TP9500; the
company also added 38.5TB of TP9500 Serial ATA storage as nearline archive for
its existing SGI InfiniteStorage CXFS shared filesystem SAN. A very long-term
SGI customer utilizing a number of SGI Origin and SGI Onyx family
supercomputers, Pacific Title is experiencing explosive growth in a number of
areas, including scanning 35mm film negatives into digital format, creating
visual effects, performing film restoration and archiving. The company, with
facilities in Hollywood and West Hollywood, also produces a majority of all
U.S. movie trailers for theatrical distribution. Image Film, a digital cinema and post production laboratory in Barcelona,
Spain, has acquired SGI InfiniteStorage solutions for its central repository
expansion. Included in the purchase were an SGI Origin 300 server, 8TB SGI
TP9500 storage system, 16-port Fibre Channel switch and 10 SGI InfiniteStorage
Shared Filesystem CXFS licenses for IRIX, Windows 2000 and Windows NT OS
clients-enabling collaboration and the sharing of files between different
clients on the storage area network without duplicating files. As a result,
the SGI CXFS SAN environment dramatically increases productivity. Crawford Communications, the largest television network operation in the
Southeast, provides satellite origination and a full range of high-end post-
production services to dozens of cable TV networks as well as an international
uplink at their headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Crawford Communications
purchased fully redundant SGI Origin 350 CXFS servers and 4TB of SGI TP9500
for their infrastructure for satellite operations. The SGI InfiniteStorage
infrastructure will be used to stage content following ingest, between editing
and play-to-air. Like many broadcasting and production facilities, Crawford is
transitioning from a tape-based workflow to a tapeless workflow that will
include a file-based library. The SGI InfiniteStorage solution was chosen
because it provided a robust environment for the infrastructure and
scalability in both terms of bandwidth and capacity. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) UK plc has selected SGI InfiniteStorage
solutions as part of an effort to optimize the back-up and recovery of data
within CGE&Y's outsourcing delivery infrastructure. Partners working on the
project include SGI, Atempo and StorageTek, who will provide the underpinning
technology, which includes an SGI Origin 350 server and an InfiniteStorage
TP9500 RAID storage array designed to significantly reduce back-up times for
CGE&Y's Storage Area Backup and Recovery Engine, also known as SABRE.
SGI also made a strong showing at the Interservice/Industry Training,
Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) this quarter utilizing the SGI
Mobile Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art customized 18-wheel truck
equipped with SGI's latest technology solutions for high-performance
computing, storage, and advanced visualization. The company continues to be
the industry leader for cutting-edge visualization systems for Command and
Control applications, Homeland Security, and Simulation and Training.
Among the visualization sales wins this quarter were:
Lockheed Martin awarded a $3.6 million contract to SGI in the second
quarter for the installation of Night Vision Goggles (NVG) simulation on 10
currently fielded and four additional pilot training systems, which will be
part of the Air Force F-16 program. The 14 Mission Training Centers (MTCs) are
powered by SGI Onyx 3000 family graphics supercomputers that function as image
generators that realistically and precisely simulate, in a 360-degree
environment, the same multi-role functions that F-16 fighter aircraft perform
in combat missions. The simulated NVG implementation produces imagery on a
helmet-mounted display that accurately replicates what the pilot would see
through actual night-vision goggles. The addition of NVG simulation
capabilities to the flight simulators will dramatically increase the flight
safety and mission effectiveness of F-16 pilots. This follows a $1.6 million
contract in the first quarter to develop and build a prototype NVG simulation
system to upgrade F-16 pilot training systems for the U.S. Air Force F-16 MTC
program. To aid in its efforts to pinpoint top producing wells, British Gas
Exploration purchased a four-processor Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision
graphics supercomputer with 12GB of system memory and four graphics pipes. The
system was chosen in part for its ability to accelerate complex subsurface
visualizations using InsideReality software. Schlumberger Cambridge Research, a UK-based R&D facility for international
oilfield and information services company Schlumberger Limited, bolstered its
3D well planning and seismic volume interpretation operations with the
purchase of an Silicon Graphics Onyx4 graphics supercomputer with a dual-pipe
UltimateVision visualization system. The four-processor Onyx system
incorporates 4GB of memory and was selected because of its leading
price/performance, and its energy- and space-efficient design. Addressing its growing number of multi-resolution television productions,
Universal Images, a leading Southfield, Michigan post-production facility, has
purchased eight Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations with Discreet smoke
HD and five Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstations with Discreet flame for
editing and visual effects. Handling primarily commercial work, Universal
Images posted hundreds of Thanksgiving and Christmas sale ads as well as
promotional presentations for automobile manufacturers at this month's North
American Auto Show in Detroit.
SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery
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 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.
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