HPCwire: Cray Launches Integrated Workstation/Cluster

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November 12, 2009

Cray Launches Integrated Workstation/Cluster

SEATTLE, Nov 12 -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. today announced the reinvention of the workstation for the next era of technical computing with the launch of the Cray CX1-iWS system, which combines a powerful Microsoft Windows 7 workstation with a fully integrated high-performance computing (HPC) cluster running Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008. With a list price beginning at under $40,000 and sold exclusively through Dell, the Cray CX1-iWS product meets a market need for a new generation of workstation.

The Cray CX1-iWS system -- the "iWS" stands for "integrated workstation" -- combines the interactivity of a workstation with the scale-out performance of a cluster conveniently packaged in a deskside form factor. Users can enjoy a highly responsive and interactive workstation environment (with eight cores of Intel Xeon processors) while initiating distributed jobs leveraging the integrated cluster resource with an additional 24 cores of Intel Xeon processing power. In total, 32 cores are available to the user or workgroup. The Cray CX1-iWS product aims to substantially boost productivity for engineers, scientists and researchers continually challenged with complex problems and little time to solve them.

"The Cray CX1-iWS puts the 'work' back in workstation by delivering a powerhouse of functionality to the workstation user or workgroup. The integration of workstation and cluster in one unit, with shared storage between them, means that users can easily move their jobs from the workstation to the cluster side of the box without moving their data or leaving the familiar Microsoft operating system environment," said Ian Miller, senior vice president of the productivity solutions group and marketing at Cray. "With this new product, Cray expects to provide HPC capability to a wide new audience that includes R&D groups in small and medium-size businesses, organizations needing to solve problems beyond the limits of traditional workstations, and people wanting to implement distributed HPC in the enterprise."

"Combining Windows 7 and Windows HPC Server 2008 in a single, integrated workstation experience will deliver HPC capabilities to a new customer base that sees value in the ease-of-use of the Windows 7 operating system paired with the compute capability of a powerful cluster resource," said Vince Mendillo, senior director of high performance computing at Microsoft. "The Cray CX1-iWS system is one of the most powerful Windows workstations ever, and a must-have for those looking to realize the benefits of HPC."

"This solution will help bring HPC to an even wider community of scientists and researchers outside the walls of marquee labs and universities," said Frank Muehleman, vice president and manager of Dell's North American public-sector business. "Working with partners like Microsoft and Cray, we continue to enable customers to tackle some of society's biggest challenges using industry-standard technologies."

Each Cray CX1-iWS system comes with one dual-socket visualization workstation, a three node compute cluster, storage and a 16-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. The workstation node features an NVIDIA Quadro graphics card that can support two high-definition monitors for visualization. It will ship exclusively with Windows 7 and Windows HPC Server 2008.

Three standard Cray CX1-iWS system configurations are available, all based on the Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series. The midrange and advanced configurations add more cluster nodes, memory and storage. The advanced configuration includes eight 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon Series 5500 processors with 24GB of memory (6x 4GB DIMMS) per node, 160GB of disk per node, 4TB of storage, the 16-port Gigabit Ethernet switch and an NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 graphics card.

The CRAY CX1-iWS system is the newest entry in the Cray CX product series and joins the Cray CX1-LC product, which was launched in July 2009. Introduced in September 2008, the successful Cray CX1 deskside supercomputer is designed from the ground up to provide superior performance, functionality and cost for individuals and departmental workgroups who want to harness an HPC cluster. Equipped with state-of-the-art visualization and storage capabilities, the Cray CX1 supercomputer delivers performance leadership across a broad range of applications, all in a compact, deskside system.

About Cray Inc.

As a global leader in supercomputing, Cray (NASDAQ: 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 Inc.

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