DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JULY 7, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 27    ( Table of Contents )

Breaking News - Platforms:

HP Systems Deliver Breakthrough Performance

HP announced its newly introduced Intel Itanium 2-based servers and workstations delivering up to 50 percent faster application performance than the previous Itanium 2-based systems to technical customers.

The new Intel Itanium 2 processor with 6MB of level 3 cache powers one- and two-way HP Workstations and HP Integrity servers, which range from one- and two-way entry-level servers to the 64-processor Integrity Superdome server.

The HP Integrity servers and HP Itanium 2-based Workstations provide unparalleled performance, industry-leading scalability and expandability, and are supported by a broad range of technical independent software vendors (ISVs).

The Itanium 2-based systems are complemented by the 32-bit HP ProLiant servers, which have been enhanced with the latest Intel Xeon "Gallatin" processor MP at speeds up to 2.8 GHz. The upgraded ProLiant servers include the ProLiant DL560, DL580, ML570, DL740 and DL760 and the HP ProLiant BL40p blade server.

"HP is unique in its ability to deliver industry-standard 32-bit and 64-bit high-performance computing solutions with a choice of operating systems, scaling techniques, broad ISV application portfolios, engineering expertise and product support," said Winston Prather, vice president, HP High Performance Technical Computing Division. "Today's announcement clearly demonstrates that HP is the best at combining open and industry-standard technologies with immense scalable-computing expertise to deliver leading performance to customers."

Leading Performance for Technical and HPC Applications

HP's new Itanium 2-based systems deliver industry-leading speed for high- performance computing (HPC) demands, with faster time-to-solution than any 64- bit RISC systems across a broad range of industrial applications in HPC and technical markets.

The new systems have an approximately 50 percent frequency increase over existing Itanium 2 processors at 900 MHz and 1.0 GHz. The new Intel Itanium 2 processor also supports twice the cache of previous Itanium 2-based systems, delivering an additional performance increase.

The new HP Integrity Superdome systems, available with Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1.5 GHz, help maximize a customer's return on IT investment with inexpensive in-box upgrades from PA-RISC to new Itanium 2 processors. These systems can be clustered with hptc/ClusterPack for scalability to multiple teraflops across thousands of processors.

Also enhanced with the new Intel Itanium 2 processor, the HP Workstation zx6000 and the HP Integrity server rx2600 deliver - for the first time - floating point and integer performance leadership.

HP recently achieved the following record benchmark results:

• Fastest microprocessor 64-way Linpack: over one-third teraflops sustained;(1)
• Fastest workstation and server SPECfp 2000: 2,106(2); and
• Fastest workstation and server SPECint 2000: 1,318.(2)

HP's extensive experience with Itanium 2-based systems combined with the use of the HP Scalable Processor Chipset zx1 and Chipset sx1000 result in leading system performance gains. The chipsets unleash the power of Itanium 2 processors by lowering memory latencies and increasing memory and input/output subsystem scalability. With high clock frequencies and more sustained performance per clock than any other microprocessor architecture, the HP Integrity servers and Itanium 2-based workstations allow greater in-depth analysis and higher quality images on more complex models. "At PNNL, we've built one of the world's most powerful Linux supercomputers using HP Itanium family-based servers and workstations," said Scott Studham, group leader of computer operations for the Molecular Sciences Computing Facility, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "We've also been testing the prototype HP servers based on the next-generation Itanium 2 processor. We are pleased with their performance and looking forward to the larger cache and faster frequency. This new computing power will advance scientific study in a host of areas and keep us on the cutting edge of technology." Unmatched Scalability and Expandability

HP offers a fully scalable and compatible line of technical systems based on the new Itanium 2 processor -- from desk-side HP Workstations to cluster-ready Integrity servers that scale from two to 64 processors in individual servers and to thousands of processors in HPC Integrity clusters.

• HP Integrity Superdome -- this highly scalable server, with 16 to 64 Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1.5 GHz (384 gigaflops peak), can be configured with up to 0.5 terabyte of memory, with 256 gigabytes per second local memory bandwidth and up to 40 GB/s of I/O bandwidth.
• HP Integrity Server rx5670 - this one- to four-way (24 GFLOPS peak) server supports high levels (4 gigabytes per second) of I/O performance (with nine PCI-X slots) to exploit high-memory capacity (up to 48 GB of memory) and 12.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
• HP Integrity Server rx2600 - this dual-processor (12 GFLOPS peak) server is available with either the 1.3-GHz or 1.5-GHz frequency of the new Intel Itanium 2 processor, complemented with a 6.4 GB/s processor bus and 8.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth, all in a cluster-ready, rack-optimized 2U footprint.
• HP Workstation zx6000 - this one- or two-way workstation is available with either the 1.3-GHz or 1.5-GHz processor and offers high-performance AGP graphics for customers using 2D or 3D design or modeling applications. In addition, the HP Workstation zx6000 supports up to 24 GB of memory, ideal for customers with very large models or datasets.

In the fall, the HP Workstation zx2000 is planned to be enhanced and should provide superb performance at an affordable price.

HP Integrity servers offer a choice of the popular industry-standard HPC operating systems: HP-UX 11i v2, Linux and Windows Server 2003. The HP Itanium 2-based workstations offer HP-UX 11i v2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003 or Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 for the Itanium processor.

Broad Application Portfolio and ISV Relationships

HP is partnering with leading ISVs to optimize application performance on the Itanium 2 architecture and exploit the full potential of HP systems. For example, all tier-one Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) ISV codes are ported, optimized and released on HP Integrity servers and HP Itanium 2-based workstations.

Since the introduction of the Itanium 2-based systems, HP has more than doubled the number of ISV applications porting to Itanium 2 processors.

Today, HP has relationships with leading technical ISVs including: Abacus, Inc., ANSYS Inc., CD-Adapco Group, CEI, EDS, ESI Group, EXA Corporation, FLUENT Inc., Livermore Software Technology Corporation, MSC Software Corporation, Paragon Imaging, Parametric Technology Corporation, The RADIOSS Group and Synopsis.

"It is essential for an ISV like MSC.Software to ensure that our customers get the highest possible performance from our software products and the new Itanium architecture is already delivering on its promise," said Greg Sikes, vice president, systems, MSC.Software. "For computationally intense engineering software applications like MSC.Nastran and MSC.Patran, Intel Itanium 2-based systems provide an excellent platform for both speed and reliability."

About HP

HP delivers vital technology for business and life. The company's solutions span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium business. For the last four quarters, HP revenue totaled $70.4 billion. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.