UPPER MARLBORO, Md., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company
(NYSE: RTNA, RTNB) has been awarded a $34 million contract to upgrade the
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) supercomputer laboratory in
Princeton, N.J. The upgrade is expected to improve the nation's climate
prediction and weather forecasting capabilities.
GFDL is a federal research laboratory in the Office of Oceanic and
Atmospheric Research, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The laboratory performs
comprehensive, long lead-time research that is fundamental to the mission of
NOAA.
One of the goals of this research is to expand the scientific
understanding of the physical processes governing the behavior of the
atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems. These systems can be
modeled mathematically and their phenomenology can be studied by complex
computer simulations. Using this information can improve climate prediction
and weather forecasting. GFDL is one of the nation's foremost computer
laboratories concentrating primarily on the modeling of hurricanes and other
large-scale weather phenomena.
"The opportunity to be part of this GFDL team capitalizes on Raytheon's
capabilities in high performance computing and earth sciences," said Ellis
Bailey, Raytheon's GFDL program manager. "The SGI Origin 3000 series
technology delivered will greatly improve GFDL's ability to meet the demands
of its scientific research."
Initial delivery consists of nine SGI Origin 3800 supercomputers each with
128 processors. The new computers will have the ability to perform more than
900 billion floating point arithmetic operations per second (900 Gigaflops)
and will have more than four times the performance of the three Cray Research
computers that they replace.
SGI, a key subcontractor on the GFDL team, recently launched its new
Origin 3000 series servers. Available immediately, the systems are based on
the breakthrough SGI NUMAflex(TM) modular technology, and offer flexibility,
resiliency, overall investment protection and superior performance, according
to Jan Silverman, vice president, SGI Advanced Systems Marketing. The SGI
NUMAflex(TM) modular technology is a "brick"-style system for constructing
small-to-very large computer systems from a common set of building blocks.
Financing for the project is being provided by SGI Solutions Finance.
"We are excited about our participation in this project and look forward
to many more opportunities to partner with Raytheon and its customers," said
Lisa Paquette-Nelson, Americas manager for SGI Solutions Finance.
The system also includes more than 20 terabytes of high-speed disk storage
that can transfer data in or out of the system at more than 10 gigabytes per
second. Raytheon will also, as part of the contract, upgrade an existing
automated tape archive storage system. Initial capacity of the tape archive
will be approximately 500 terabytes.
"This system addresses GFDL's need for high performance computing and its
need for high reliability," said James Ballew, Raytheon's chief architect for
the system.
SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced
graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their
toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with
offices worldwide, the company is located on the Internet at http://www.sgi.com.
Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader
that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense
electronics and business and special mission aircraft. It has operations
throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 70 countries.
Contact:
Amy Ochs
972-205-7490
SOURCE Raytheon Company
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Related links:
http://www.raytheon.com
CONTACT:
Amy Ochs of Raytheon, 972-205-7490
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