SGI Altix 3000 Proves Favorite with Linux Journal Readers

World’s Fastest Linux OS-Based System Named ‘Favorite Server’ by Linux Community Members in Annual Readers’ Choice Awards

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (Nov. 6, 2003)- In another sign of growing support from the Linux community, SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced its SGI® Altix™ 3000 family of servers and superclusters has been named “Favorite Server” in Linux Journal’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards. More than 7,500 Linux users and developers cast votes for products in 28 categories, with SGI Altix emerging as the top choice among all Linux® OS-based servers.

The latest award reflects continued success for the acclaimed Altix™ system, which in July was named Product of the Year by the editors of Linux Journal and in January earned “Best of Show” at Linux World Conference & Expo 2003. The fastest system ever to run the Linux operating system, SGI Altix is a true 64-bit high-performance computing (HPC) platform that leverages the advantages of open source computing with up to 64 powerful Intel® Itanium® 2 processors in a single node – and up to 512 in a supercluster configuration with global shared memory.
“Among the many accolades Altix has earned since its introduction in January, those that come from the Linux community hold a special significance,” said Dave Parry, senior vice president and general manager, Server at Platform Group, SGI. “Linux has emerged as a true option for production HPC environments due in large part to the support Altix has received from users and developers who continue to drive the evolution of open source solutions. Working closely with this community, we are redefining the limits of performance and scalability on Linux.”

The SGI Altix family of servers combines industry-standard 64-bit Linux with the Intel Itanium 2 processor family and SGI® NUMAflex™ architecture to enable global shared memory systems from a few to hundreds of processors with up to 4 terabytes of shared memory, which is a first for Linux OS-based computing. Powered by the third-generation NUMAflex supercomputing architecture, even the largest data sets can be handled and analyzed with ease and in record time for production workflows with the most demanding stability. Only the SGI Altix 3000 family of servers is designed around this scalable shared- memory architecture that analyzes data sets as whole entities, without breaking them up into smaller segments to be handled by individual processors. The Altix architecture has proven ideal both for complex shared-memory applications running on a large single system image, and for communication-intensive applications optimized for clustering in throughput workflows.

Availability

Scalable SGI Altix 3000 systems are available today in server configurations of 4 to 64 processors, and supercluster configurations of 4 to 512 processors. For customers demanding even larger Altix superclusters, SGI plans to support configurations 1,024 processors in May 2004 and larger over time. Additional Altix system technical and availability information is posted on www.sgi.com/servers/altix.

Since its introduction in January, SGI Altix 3000 has been recognized as the first Linux cluster that scales up to 64 processors within each node and the first cluster to allow global shared-memory access across nodes. Inspired by the success of the SGI Altix family and the powerful combination of standard Linux running on 64-bit Intel processors, more than 60 high-performance manufacturing, science, energy and environmental applications have been ported by their commercial developers to the 64-bit Linux environment. Over two thirds of these applications have certified and optimized their code for differentiated performance on the Altix platform.

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 impact of competitive markets, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, the acceptance of applicable technologies by markets and customers, 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.

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