SGI Awarded $27.8 Million Contract With Air Force Research Laboratory

Silicon Graphics International Corp.
announced that the United States Department
of Defense (DoD) has selected an SGI ICE X HPC
system as part of its Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) to
provide compute resources for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) DoD
Supercomputing Research Center (DSRC).

The agreement also includes storage and four years of support in a transaction
valued at over $27.8 million.

The SGI ICE X compute solution selected will be housed in 32 M-racks
and includes 2,304 IP-115 (twin) compute blades with cold-sink technology. It
features 9,216 sockets (73,728 cores) powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600
series operating at 2.6GHz and will boast a theoretical peak performance of
over 1.5petaflops. As part of the multi-year agreement the DoD has also
selected SGI InfiniteStorage 5500 providing 6.72PB of storage and operating on
the SGI Lustre file system. SGI Professional Services will also provide four
years of technical support services.

"Breaking through the challenges faced by the
DoD in research, acquisition, and operations requires increasingly powerful
supercomputers along with the unique expertise and advanced communications
infrastructure that the HPCMP provides," said John E. West, director
of the DoD HPCMP. "SGI has long been
one of our technology partners, and we look forward to extending that
relationship with them over the coming years."

"SGI is honored to provide the AFRL
DSRC with the compute, storage and services solutions required to take its
compute capabilities to the next level," said Jorge Titinger,
president and CEO of SGI. "The
results of its work and research ensure that the men and women of our armed
services will always have the best information, anytime and anywhere, to keep
them safe and ensure the success of their missions."

The High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) provides DoD
laboratories and Test Centers HPC capabilities and expertise through
partnerships with the Laboratories and Test Centers.

HPCMP resources are used
to provide military programs with a competitive advantage for the design,
operation and sustainment of new weapons systems; for example, preparing U.S.
aircraft for overseas deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, and assisting in
long-term weather predictions to plan humanitarian and military operations
throughout the world.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is such a partner with
the HPCMP by providing a HPC Center committed to providing the
resources necessary for DoD scientists and engineers to complete their
research, development, testing and evaluation projects.