Cray Inc. is packing evenmore horsepower into its CX1desk-side supercomputer with a new model that will ship with Intel'sXeon processor 5600 Series, providing up to a teraflop of computinghorsepower for computationally intensive applications.

The third-generation CX1 now features Intel's newmicroarchitecture built on the company's latest 32nm process technology. Themicroarchitecture features two more computer cores per socket giving the CX1access to a total of six cores compared to earlier CX1 models, which werelimited to support for four cores. As a result, the new CX1 can deliver morethan 50 percent additional compute power while still maintaining the same powerand energy consumption levels.

This additional horsepower is critical for engineers who arealways looking to up the performance of their processor-hungry simulation andvisualization applications, according to Ian Miller, Cray's senior vicepresident of the Productivity Solutions Group and marketing. "The classicproblem that a design engineer has is getting their computationally intensivework that's part of designing a product or part accomplished," Miller explains."While workstations are increasingly powerful, engineers are always yearningfor even more power and the ability to get batch simulations done in a quickertimeframe."

The CX1, with Intel's 5600 processor, delivers on that needby providing access to a small cluster of processors - up to eight individualblades - so engineering teams scale out models and simulations to achieveoptimal performance. "This essentially lets them harness up to eight computersto bring additional horsepower to bear on the problem," Miller explains. "Itlets them get work done faster, get products out the door more quickly and maketheir overall operations faster."

Despite its supercomputer performance, the CX1 plugs intostandard office power and operates within a standard noise envelope making itsuitable for use within an open office, not just within a data center. Cray hasalso been working with leading engineering and design tool software providersto ensure their applications take advantage of the parallel functionality ofthe new Intel architecture and the CX1 platform.

The CX1 ranges in price from $15,000 to $75,000.

Cray CX1 Upgrade Supports Intel 5600 Processor_A