NASA, SGI and Intel Embark on ‘Project Columbia’ to Accelerate Scientific Studies and Rebirth of Space Missions

Silicon Graphics
(NYSE: SGI ) today announced that NASA has chosen SGI(R) Altix(R) as the
foundation of Project Columbia, an extensive collaboration with SGI and Intel
Corporation that is expected to fuel scientific breakthroughs in space
exploration, global warming research, and aerospace engineering. With Project
Columbia, NASA plans to integrate a total of twenty 512-processor SGI(R)
Altix(R) systems with a 500-terabyte SGI(R) InfiniteStorage solution to create
the Space Exploration Simulator, which will be among the world’s largest
Linux(R) OS-based supercomputers. Powered by a total of 10,240 Intel(R)
Itanium(R) 2 processors, the Space Exploration Simulator will equip NASA
scientists with one of the most sophisticated and capable supercomputers in
history.

“For over 20 years NASA and SGI have worked very closely and very
successfully to deliver a series of technological firsts,” said G. Scott
Hubbard, NASA Ames Director. “Project Columbia will build on the knowledge we
gained from this close relationship to underpin the most ambitious missions in
NASA’s history. As we set our sights to the Vision for Space Exploration, we
look forward to making the journey with SGI and Intel.”

“Now more than ever, NASA’s efforts are crucial to understanding our place
in the universe and our destiny on this planet,” said Bob Bishop, chairman and
CEO of SGI. “We are truly honored to have Altix chosen as the compute platform
for NASA’s next big step forward.”

“The exploration of the universe remains one of man’s greatest
challenges,” said Intel Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett. “The ‘Project
Columbia’ supercomputer designed by NASA, SGI and Intel will enable the
world’s brightest designers and scientists to look a little deeper and reach a
little farther in their understanding of, and achievements in, space.”

By boosting its computing capacity ten-fold through Project Columbia, the
NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility (NAS) will be able to more effectively
handle such critical projects as simulating future space missions, projecting
the impact of human activity on weather patterns, and designing safe and
efficient space exploration vehicles and aircraft. The present collaboration
builds upon the highly successful 8-year partnership that last year developed
the world’s first 512-processor Linux server — based on standard, “off-the-
shelf” microprocessor and open source technology — the SGI Altix at NASA Ames
Research Center named ‘Kalpana’ after Columbia astronaut and Ames alumna
Kalpana Chawla.

Housed at Ames Research Center in the heart of California’s Silicon
Valley, the Space Exploration Simulator will rely heavily on the open
standards-based Altix system’s unique globally addressable memory
architecture, which allows complex data sets to be driven entirely out of
memory, enabling productivity breakthroughs that conventional commodity
clusters or proprietary UNIX(R) servers can’t achieve.

“As NASA pushes the boundaries of space exploration through the solar
system and beyond, simulation will play a role of increasing importance,” said
Addison Snell, research director, High-Performance Computing, IDC. “NASA
scientists using the computer system from SGI with Intel processors will
expand our understanding of the complexities of manned and unmanned space
exploration. The installation of the Space Exploration Simulator is a
significant achievement for NASA, SGI, and Intel, and beyond that, it is a
major step forward for the United States.”

SGI has already delivered the first three of the new Altix systems to NASA
Ames, with the entire 10,240 Itanium 2 processor-based supercomputing array to
be completed over the next several months. In response to a May task force
recommendation by Office of Science and Technology Policy, NASA will make a
portion of the Space Exploration Simulator broadly available to ensure that
the entire U.S. science and engineering community has access to the nation’s
most advanced supercomputer architectures.

The Altix architecture also will provide easy installation and
administration of the Space Exploration Simulator. “Aside from introducing new
supercomputing capabilities and performance levels,” added John Parks, Deputy
Chief of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, “we expect the
Space Exploration Simulator to initiate a new era in high-performance
computing — one in which operating a 10,000 processor-supercomputer may be as
straightforward as managing twenty workstations.”

The SGI Altix family leverages the built-in SGI(R) NUMAlink(TM)
interconnect fabric, which allows global addressing of all memory in the
system and delivers data across nodes up to 200 times faster than conventional
interconnects. Altix systems feature a fully supported, LBS (Linux Standard
Based) 64-bit Linux operating system and advanced development environment
specifically optimized for technical applications. SGI Altix has consistently
set records for sheer performance — including breaking the 1 terabyte/second
barrier on the STREAMS Triad benchmark, an industry standard measurement of
memory bandwidth — and for its ability to efficiently run manufacturing,
engineering and scientific applications across hundreds of processors in a
Linux operating environment.

NASA and SGI are also working to expand the Altix system architecture to
support globally addressable memory across 2,048 processors in a single
system. Such an effort will enable NASA to push the envelope of scientific
discovery because a supercomputer with a single pool of shared memory will run
many scientific applications significantly faster than a cluster of small
systems whose memory is fragmented and distributed across an interconnect
fabric.

Users accessing the new system will need to share current and historic
data, and are expected to generate new data at a rate of multiple terabytes
per day. In order to keep the system’s massive compute capacity efficiently
utilized, it will draw data from a 500 Terabyte SGI InfiniteStorage storage
area network (SAN) and leverage a further 800 terabytes of existing data
managed by SGI’s InfiniteStorage data lifecycle management solution — Data
Migration Facility (DMF). To get the best possible performance and utilization
out of the SAN, SGI InfiniteStorage shared filesystem, CXFS(TM) will provide
all applications on the SAN instant access to all data without the cost,
complexity and wait time of traditional data sharing methods. To store data
that needs to be retained over longer periods of time, the disk-based SAN will
be augmented with the DMF-based data lifecycle management environment which
delivers faster performance than archive alternatives, but which costs
significantly less than disk.

In addition to Intel Itanium 2 processors, the Project Columbia systems
features storage technology from Brocade Communications and Engenio
Information Technologies, Inc., memory technology from Dataram Corporation and
Micron Technology, Inc. and interconnect technology from Voltaire.

Availability

SGI(R) Altix(R) 3000 systems are available today in shared memory
configurations of 4 to 1,024 Itanium 2 processors, with many deployed systems
of 256 and 512 processors. SGI InfiniteStorage solutions enables customers to
address their data-intensive enterprise needs while providing scalable
capacity, management and performance in a cost-effective architecture.

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
ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving
multiple providers and users, the possibility that the order will be modified
or cancelled by the customer, the possibility that the timing of the
deliveries may be affected by component availability 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.
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, Altix, XFS, the SGI logo and the SGI cube are
registered trademarks and NUMAlink, CXFS and The Source of Innovation and
Discovery
are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other
countries worldwide. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. UNIX
is a
registered trademark of The Open Group in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is
a
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. All other
trademarks
mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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