The 20th annual Supercomputing Conference (SC08) was held in Austin, Texas in late November, and we were there celebrating a historic milestone in Cray history -- surpassing the petaflops speed barrier with the Cray XT5TM supercomputer known as "Jaguar" located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) at the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS).
The newly upgraded 1.64 petaflops Jaguar system with ECOphlexTM (PHase-change Liquid EXchange) technology is recognized as the first and only open science petascale system in the world.
Proudly, Cray remains true to its founding passion -- to be the leading designer and manufacturer of scientific supercomputers. We continue our commitment to advancing "big science" by leading supercomputer technology and helping to solve the world's most difficult scientific challenges.
|
| SC08 also presented the opportunity to showcase the newest addition to Cray's line of supercomputers, the Cray CX1TM deskside supercomputer. There were ten Cray CX1's on the showroom floor, including in booths hosted by Microsoft, Intel, NetApp, Clustercorp and Interactive Supercomputing. Attendee interest in its design and capabilities was overwhelmingly positive. |
| HECToR's Cray XT4TM System Helps Researchers Simulate Temperature of Earth's Core, Determine How Eggshell Is Produced |
|
Researchers in the United Kingdom (UK) are already achieving breakthrough science in a number of key disciplines using the powerful and highly scalable Cray XT4 supercomputer that was unveiled in January 2008 as part of the UK's High-End Computing Terascale Resource (HECToR) project.
In the time since it was introduced, UK researchers have documented a number of scientific advancements using the Cray XT4 system. Running a number of high resolution simulations at rapid speeds, the supercomputer has enabled researchers to gain a deeper understanding of important scientific phenomena in the fields of materials engineering, fluid dynamics and physics. These critical research projects include determining the composition of eggshell and how it's manufactured, the ease of turbulence creation using fractal grids, how ultra-fast lasers cut through targets without damaging tissue and the temperature of the Earth's core.
|
|
Cray "Red Storm" Supercomputer Helps U.S. Navy Shoot Down Errant Satellite |
|
In late 2007, a satellite failed shortly after its launch, posing a serious potential safety hazard as its earth orbit deteriorated. The National Nuclear Security Administration ( NNSA) untilized the Cray " Red Storm" supercomputer at Sandia National Laboratories to provide simulation support to the U.S. Navy so they could shoot down the errant satellite with a single missile strike. The entire Red Storm system, containing nearly 26,000 AMD Opteron TM processing elements, was dedicated for nearly two months to the task of simulating and planning the complex missile strike. The errant satellite was successfully destroyed in February 2008. The details of this mission was declassified several months later. |
| Cray CX1 Does Life Insurance Modeling |
Microsoft recently hosted a webinar highlighting Milliman MG-ALFA® which is available on the Cray CX1 deskside supercomputer, fully integrated with Windows® HPC Server 2008. Milliman MG-ALFA is designed to meet emerging insurance requirements and deliver advanced analytics. |
| Cray Technical Workshop North America 2009 |
 Please join us for the third annual Cray Technical Workshop North America 2009, being held February 24-25 at the Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, South Carolina. At this workshop you will hear directly from users and Cray experts about the latest achievements made possible by Cray supercomputers, and the next generation of innovations at Cray.
This workshop is intended for Cray customers, users, prospects and partners. Registration opening soon. |
| Editor's Message |
| We welcome your feedback regarding our newsletter. Please email any comments to newsletter@cray.com.
|
