Cray bases next-generation supercomputers on AMD Opteron CPUs

[Bob Crabtree]

Cray To Base Next-Generation Supercomputers On AMD Opteron Processor Platform

Firms Will Collaborate On Cray's 2006 DARPA HPCS Phase 3 Proposal

SEATTLE, WA, -- November 14, 2005 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Cray Inc, (Nasdaq NM: CRAY) today announced that they have signed an agreement that extends their successful relationship through the end of the decade. Cray will continue to use AMD Opteron processors for the microprocessor-based supercomputer products Cray develops during this period. In addition, the two firms will actively collaborate on Cray's mid-2006 proposal for Phase 3 of the federal government's DARPA HPCS (High Productivity Computing Systems) program.

That's what I call cooking!

[directhex]

remember though, this is only their low-to-medium-end MPI-driven kit. there are still a lot of tasks that demand massive SMP (where you won't go beyond 8xdual on opteron), or vector processing, which cray currently service with reselling of NEC SX-series machines, or their own X1 series.

there are a lot of interesting MPI-driven solutions using opteron, with pretty massive interconnect (if not quite to Cray levels), such as the new linuxnetworx kit - or even classic 1u or blades, once you factor in a fast interconnect like myrinet or infiniband.

DARPA might have money to burn, but for the rest of us, their MPI-based opteron machines are poor value for money