Source: PRNewswire
Jun 17, 2008 09:01 ET

SGI Mobilizes Accelerator Technology Innovators in Effort to Boost Scientific Application Performance

New Accelerator Enabling Program Promotes Collaboration with ISVs, Customers to Create Fastest Engines for Scientific Applications

DRESDEN, Germany, June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- International Supercomputing Conference Booth D23-D26 -- As the world's high-performance computing (HPC) community gathers at ISC '08 this week, SGI (NASDAQ:SGIC) today launched a collaborative initiative aimed at using a range of accelerator technologies to dramatically boost the performance of scientific applications.

The new SGI(R) Accelerator Enabling Program rallies industry innovators -- including NVIDIA, XtremeData, Inc., PACT XPP Technologies and ClearSpeed(TM) Technology -- to collaborate with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and customers to determine the optimal accelerator choice for specific scientific disciplines.

Accelerator technologies include specialized processors, graphics engines and other devices that increase the speed of critical functions within an application. When used as part of an overall HPC solution from SGI, these technologies have been shown to improve performance by orders of magnitude -- and at significantly less cost than traditional system scale-outs.

Through the SGI Accelerator Enabling Program, ISVs and customers will have access to dozens of accelerator technology experts from SGI and participating companies. By collaborating with these experts, developers and customers can optimize their codes to run on the accelerator that best suits the needs of their applications.

The program extends a long-established commitment from SGI to support accelerator technologies in its HPC platforms. Starting with its first graphics systems in 1984, SGI has incorporated numerous leading-edge accelerator options in its system, including its SGI(R) RASC(TM) (Reconfigurable Application Specific Computing) RC100 Technology for SGI(R) Altix(R) systems.

"SGI customers in the sciences have seen enormous benefit from accelerating key applications, including BLAST-n, with SGI RASC Technology. With this new program, we're broadening those benefits to more applications and disciplines with a wider range of accelerator technologies," said Bill Mannel, senior director of server marketing, SGI, who will deliver a presentation on the new initiative June 20 at ISC. "The SGI Accelerator Enabling Program brings together trusted experts and ISVs to provide customers with the best accelerators for their SGI platform and their specific application."

The SGI Accelerator Enabling Program incorporates a range of technologies to extract maximum performance from bioinformatics, computational chemistry, weather and climate modeling, astrophysics, and other scientific applications. Among them:

-- NVIDIA(R) parallel visual computing on NVIDIA professional GPU
(graphics processing unit) solutions
-- PACT XPP digital signal processors for 2D edge detection used in
biomedical imaging, pattern recognition and searches
-- ClearSpeed Technology acceleration solutions for molecular dynamics,
drug design, computational chemistry, electromagnetics and turbulent
fluid flow analysis
-- XtremeData for Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) accelerator
options beyond the SGI RASC RC100 to optimize scientific computing and
medical imaging

"Domain knowledge is absolutely critical when designing a solution that delivers on the promise of application-specific acceleration, and the SGI Accelerator Enabling Program gives ISVs and customers the chance to collaborate with experts who have that knowledge," said Geno Valente, vice president, sales and marketing, XtremeData, Inc. "XtremeData is proud to participate in this initiative, which reflects our own commitment to finding new and inventive ways to use XtremeData technologies to achieve breakthroughs in the sciences."

SGI will exhibit its latest HPC solutions in Booth D23-D26 at ISC '08. For information on the SGI solutions, visit http://www.sgi.com/.

SGI | Innovation for Results(TM)

SGI (NASDAQ:SGIC) is a leader in high-performance computing. SGI delivers a broad range of high-performance server, storage and visualization 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 change, 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 http://sgi.com/.