Cray and Intel team up for Supercomputing

By Nathan Statz

April 29, 2008: Processing giant, Intel has setup an alliance with Cray to produce supercomputers that run on Intel Chips, in addition to its current deal with AMD.

There was a time when Cray was synonymous with supercomputing, where even popular culture referenced the Cray-1 and Cray-2 as being the goliath of the day. Having been through several business changes, such as a merger with Silicon Graphics and later being sold to Tera Computers, Cray now flourishes in a supercomputing market that is filled with major hardware-producing competitors such as IBM and HP.

The new multi-year agreement will see Intel processors put inside Cray supercomputers, which had previously been running on AMD chips.

"This collaboration provides the HPC market segment with access to the best microprocessors the industry has to offer at any point in time, in the most advanced supercomputers in the world," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray.

According to [i]Top500.org[/i] the top two supercomputing sites in the world run on IBM Blue Gene supercomputers, with Cray occupying the 6th, 7th and 9th spots. The partnership between two dominating market forces is expected to cause a big splash in the industry.

"Cray's commitment to Intel is a testament of our commitment to HPC and the strength of our hardware and software roadmap and many-core research," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group.

Despite the strategic alliance, Cray intends to keep offering supercomputers based on AMD chipsets as well as the new Intel-based versions.

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