SGI to Showcase 128 Processor Altix System at SC2003: One of the Most Powerful Single Linux Systems Industry Luminaries Speak on SGI's Stage; Company Also Features Latest in Centralized Storage and Visualization Technology SC2003 CONFERENCE and PHOENIX, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SGI today announced from the SC2003 conference that the company will feature its powerful SGI(R) Altix(TM) 3000 family of Linux(R) OS-based supercomputers. SC2003, the international conference on high-performance computing and networking, is held this year at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Conventional Center, Nov. 17-20. SGI will publicly display for the first time an Altix supercomputer powered by 128 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors utilizing the company's scalable NUMAflex(TM) shared memory architecture. In its first year, customers across the globe have adopted this new breed of supercomputer demonstrating the strong desire for more open and scalable computing options. "We've had an amazing year and made tremendous strides since the last Supercomputing industry conference," said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO, Silicon Graphics. "SGI has introduced significant advancements across all product lines as a continuation of its total focus on the high-performance technical marketplace. Most of all, we are very proud of the tremendous achievements our customers have made using SGI technology across so many critical areas of bioinformatics, climate modeling, energy research, manufacturing and national defense. SGI is clearly demonstrating its HPC industry leadership." Customers, business partners and industry experts will take the stage in the Silicon Graphics booth (Number 835) before a 20-foot SGI(R) Reality Center(R) presentation theatre to showcase the impact to their work and the record-breaking accomplishments they have achieved by using the company's technology and products. Speakers and topics in the SGI booth and related panels include: -- The Benefits of Long-Term Collaboration: Walt Brooks, NASA division chief will discuss the advancements made possible through a long- term and close relationship with SGI. -- Scaling Linux to 512 Processors: Jim Taft, consultant, NASA Ames, will present the highlights of an aggressive program to develop the first 512-processor single system configuration of an Altix system. -- Peridynamic Modeling of Fracture and Failure Analysis: Abe Askari, associate technical fellow, Boeing Corporation, will discuss a departure from traditional finite element analysis for aerospace, touching on the benefits of the scaling properties of the SGI Altix system. -- HPC for a Smart State: Bernard Pailthorpe, professor, University of Queensland, will provide an overview on how the university is providing a critical infrastructure for an Australian state with a long term vision of developing world competitive industries and research capability. -- State of the Union for Linux In HPC: Jon "maddog" Hall, executive director, Linux International, will discuss how Linux has changed to meet HPC needs, its direction for meeting future needs and why Linux should be the operating system of choice for Beowulf clusters, NUMA machines and the Grid. -- World Record 10 Terabyte Backup: Victoria Grey, vice president, Business Continuance, LEGATO, will speak on the benchmark achieved through cooperation between SGI, LEGATO, Brocade, LSI Logic Storage Systems and StorageTek. -- The Virtual Laboratory: Poznan Supercomputing Center, from Phoenix a user will control a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscope located in Poznan, Poland. The raw data will be converted into understandable results, then interactively visualized at both sites. -- Project Ultraviolet: Eng Lim Goh, Ph.D., chief technology officer, SGI, will discuss the motivation behind the company's development of its next-generation science-driven systems architecture and software environment. -- Storage on the Lunatic Fringe: Beyond Peta-Scale Storage Systems: A workshop (Thursday 12:00 p.m.) that will help paint a picture of the current and future application requirements that significantly push the envelope of storage systems and the concepts, architectures, and technologies being developed to meet these requirements. -- SGI User Group to Host Executive Panel Discussion Featuring Distinguished Senior Members of HPC Community: (Wednesday 5:00 p.m. Hyatt Regency) Industry leaders will discuss implementation experiences and record-breaking results achieved with SGI's Altix systems. -- "Exploiting Synergy: Acquiring, Computing, Managing and Visualizing Data on the Grid" (Thursday 12:00p.m.) A panel of experts will discuss the potential of Grid computing far beyond what is available on a network. Along with the SGI Altix 3000 family of scalable Linux systems, an extensive array of new centralized storage and visualization products is also being demonstrated at the SGI booth. These include the SGI(R) InfiniteStorage solutions, Silicon Graphics(R) Onyx4(TM) UltimateVision(TM) visualization system, Silicon Graphics(R) Tezro(TM) visual workstation, SGI(R) Origin(R) family of servers, and demonstrations of Visual Area Networking and collaborative Grid computing. SGI Altix Takes Center Stage at SC2003 "The shared-memory architecture of the SGI Altix system allows SGI customers to take the fullest advantage of the Intel Itanium 2 processor," said Richard Dracott, director of marketing, Enterprise Platforms Group, Intel. "Together, SGI and Intel are providing HPC users with a supercomputing- class system that scales reliably to hundreds of processors with industry- standard components and a Linux operating environment." Once again breaking the perceived limits of scalability, the Altix system encompasses a record 128 processors and terabyte of memory within a single instance of the Linux operating environment and up to 512 processors and 4TB of memory in a supercluster configuration. Such capabilities leverage the built-in SGI NUMAlink(TM) interconnect fabric, delivering data across nodes up to 200 times faster than conventional clustering interconnects. The broad acceptance of Altix is solid evidence of a growing appetite for scalable, shared-memory systems capable of achieving industry-leading performance with Itanium 2 processors. SGI attributes much of the success of the Altix line to its NUMAflex shared memory architecture in which all the processors in the computer share the same memory. This is distinct from older computer architectures and clusters where every processor has its own associated memory. The main advantage of shared memory is not having to move data from one memory location to another, which results in faster processing and easier programming. Simply put, utilizing the NUMAflex share memory model saves users tremendous time and effort much like doing a month's worth of shopping at a "super" store or mall is more efficient than running all over town to different stores. Among the awards presented to the Altix system this year, most recently the system earned "Most Innovative Overall HPC Technology" in the 2003 HPCwire Innovation Awards and the Linux Journal "Readers' Choice Awards." The Altix line was also prominently featured on the 22nd Top 500 List of the world's fastest supercomputers. Origin Systems for Defense and Homeland Security Also built upon the NUMAflex architecture, SGI will demonstrate the Origin(R) 350 system running as a satellite ground station with data ingest, compute and storage in a single rack. SGI pairs the high reliability and massive I/O capability of the Origin server family with the IRIX(R) operating system for an unstoppable combination for the most demanding applications in areas including government and homeland security. InfiniteStorage Puts SGI on the Map With InfiniteStorage, SGI is changing the rules in network storage by delivering hardware and software solutions specifically developed for the unique and demanding needs of data-intensive enterprises. Customers include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, which acquired in the spring of 2003 a staggering 40TB of SGI InfiniteStorage to support a 2,048 processor SGI(R) Origin(R) 3900 system, the largest ever built. Live on the show floor and networked to sites over 6,200 miles away, SGI will demonstrate the unique capabilities of InfiniteStorage solutions. Using technology from YottaYotta and SGI(R) InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS(TM) in a SAN over a wide area network, the demonstration will convey the tremendous cost and time savings from sharing data over a distributed network- without having to duplicate data or the storage infrastructure. Shipping for four years, CXFS is a mature shared filesystem that delivers instant, no-copy data sharing and includes support for a wide range of leading operating environments-enabling users and applications to share data concurrently over a SAN without replicating files. CXFS now supports Linux and IBM(R) AIX(R) operating environments in addition to current support for IRIX(R), Solaris(TM) and Windows(R) platforms. SGI will also demonstrate how to automate data movement based on the customer's workflow across multiple storage technologies in a multi-tier storage hierarchy. On the new SGI InfiniteStorage TP9300S Serial ATA storage system, SGI's Data Migration Facility will migrate data in the filesystem from Fibre Channel disk to the TP9300S SATA disk and then to multiple tape formats in a tape library. New Perspectives on Visualization Delivering eight times the power at a fifth of the price of previous systems, SGI's fourth generation Onyx4 UltimateVision system, based on a new graphics architecture provides unparalleled scalability and performance in a compact affordable solution. Demonstrations will verify the power of a visualization system that marries a supercomputer to industry-standard graphics cards. SGI continues its mission to help advance technology that enables users view data from the most effective and realistic perspectives. Among demonstrations at the SGI booth will be DDD, Inc. with its new auto- stereo capability that converts non-stereo applications to stereo automatically without the use of glasses. Additionally, live from the show floor SGI's Visual Area Networking demonstration features a new level of performance and interactivity that links organizations and data from disparate sites. These demonstrations, featuring the new Onyx4 and Tezro systems, bring unprecedented levels of visualization power and multisite collaboration to individuals and teams. For a complete overview of SGI's high performance computing offering and profiles on the relationships mentioned within this release, visit http://www.sgi.com/. This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The viewer is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the impact of competitive markets, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, the acceptance of applicable technologies by markets and customers, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its reports on From 10-K and Form 10-Q. SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM) 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. SGI was named on FORTUNE magazine's 2003 list of "Top 100 Companies to Work For." With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com/. NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, the SGI logo, the SGI cube, IRIX and Origin are registered trademarks and Altix, Onyx4, UltimateVision, Tezro, CXFS, TP9500, SAN 1000, NAS 1000 NUMAflex and The Source of Innovation and Discovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. YottaYotta is a registered trademark of YottaYotta, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010510/SFTH025LOGO ) MEDIA CONTACT Ginny Babbitt 650.933.4519 Lisa Pistacchio 650.933.5683 SGI PR HOTLINE 650.933.7777 SGI PR FACSIMILE 650.933.0283 http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010510/SFTH025LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: SGI CONTACT: Ginny Babbitt, +1-650-933-4519, or , or Lisa Pistacchio, +1-650-933-5683, or , or PR Hotline, +1-650-933-7777, or PR Facsimile, +1-650-933-0283, all of SGI Web site: http://www.sgi.com/

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