SEATTLE, WA, July 24 -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. announced today it signed a contract with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to provide the Pawsey Centre in Perth, Australia with a next-generation Cray supercomputer code-named "Cascade" and a next-generation Cray Sonexion storage system. Consisting of products and services, the multi-year, multi-phase contract is valued at more than $21 million USD.

Located in Kensington, Western Australia, the Pawsey Centre will use Cray's Cascade supercomputer and Sonexion storage system to support the data-intensive science that will be carried out using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescopes. The Cray systems will also be used by researchers and scientists at the Pawsey Centre to support additional research areas including geosciences, nanotechnology and biosciences. The Pawsey Centre is owned by CSIRO and managed by iVEC.

"Our organisation is focused on establishing world-class supercomputing facilities and expertise that will allow for the exploration of new paradigms of research," said Paul Nichols, iVEC Executive Director. "Providing our users at the Pawsey Centre with Cray's next-generation Cascade and Sonexion storage systems reinforces our mission and represents a significant contribution to the future of Australian research."

"We are honored to be working with iVEC and CSIRO to provide the Pawsey Centre with the most advanced high performance computing technologies our company has to offer -- the next-generation of our Sonexion storage system and our upcoming Cascade supercomputer," said Andrew Wyatt, vice president, Cray Asia Pacific. "The science being undertaken at the Pawsey Centre will require significant supercomputing resources, and we are excited to provide their users with the latest and most innovative Cray systems that are uniquely designed to meet the needs of these demanding challenges."

Cray's Cascade supercomputer, which is expected to be widely available in 2013, is the next step in Cray's Adaptive Supercomputing vision. The system will feature major advancements to the Cray Linux Environment, Cray's HPC-optimized programming environment, and the next-generation Aries interconnect chipset. Cascade will also feature support for Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors -- a first for Cray's high-end systems -- and the Cascade system at the Pawsey Centre is expected to include the Intel(R) Xeon(R) Phi(TM) coprocessors based on Intel's Many Integrated Core (Intel(R) MIC) architecture. The Cascade supercomputer is in part made possible by Cray's participation in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) High Productivity Computing Systems program.

The Cray Sonexion storage system brings together an integrated file system, software and storage offering that has been designed specifically for a wide range of HPC workloads, providing users with an integrated, scalable Lustre solution that is easy to install and maintain. Cray's Sonexion storage system combines powerful servers, the latest Lustre parallel file system and efficient management software into a modular and scalable storage product that is tested at scale, and supported as a complete solution by Cray.

Initial deliveries of the Cascade supercomputer and Sonexion storage system to the Pawsey Centre will begin in 2013 and are expected to be completed in 2014.

About iVEC

iVEC is an unincorporated joint venture of CSIRO and the four public Western Australian universities: Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia. It was established in 2001 to foster and promote scientific and technological innovation through the provision of supercomputing and eResearch services to the research community, commercial organisations and government agencies. In 2009 iVEC was charged with establishing and operating the $80 million Pawsey Centre by the Australian government. iVEC has a 5 year agreement with the Western Australia State Government to fund staff to manage the Pawsey infrastructure and provide uptake services for the user community.

About the Pawsey Centre The Pawsey Centre (named after Dr. Joseph Pawsey, an Australian pioneer in the field of radio astronomy) was officially launched by Senator Kim Carr, Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research on 27 August 2009. The Centre is located adjoining CSIRO's Australian Resources Research Centre in Technology Park, Kensington, Western Australia. As a supercomputing facility, it is expected to be among the leading echelon of supercomputers in the world at the time of its final commissioning. The Pawsey Centre is owned by the CSIRO and managed by iVEC.

About Cray Inc.

As a global leader in supercomputing, Cray provides highly advanced supercomputers and world-class services and support to government, industry and academia. Cray technology is designed to enable scientists and engineers to achieve remarkable breakthroughs by accelerating performance, improving efficiency and extending the capabilities of their most demanding applications. Cray's Adaptive Supercomputing vision is focused on delivering innovative next-generation products that integrate diverse processing technologies into a unified architecture, allowing customers to surpass today's limitations and meeting the market's continued demand for realized performance. Go to www.cray.com for more information.

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Source: Cray