Cray/Media: Mardi Larson, 612/683-3538 Cray/Financial: Bill Gacki, 612/683-7372 CRAY RESEARCH REPORTS MORE THAN 35 ADVANCE ORDERS FOR NEW LOW-COST CRAY J90 SERIES SUPERCOMPUTERS FROM INDUSTRIAL, GOVERNMENT AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMERS EAGAN, Minn., Sept. 26, 1994 -- Cray Research announced today that it has received 37 advance orders for CRAY J90 series systems, a new line of low-cost, compact supercomputers designed to operate as powerful simulation servers for large problems that challenge or exhaust the capabilities of workstations. Cray Research also today unveiled the first system in the series, the CRAY J916 supercomputer priced starting at $225,000 (U.S.). Volume shipments are slated to begin for this system in first quarter of 1995; all systems ordered to date will be installed next year, the company said. "This is an impressive order backlog for a system that we are just announcing today," said John Carlson, chairman and chief executive officer for Cray Research. "The CRAY J916 supercomputers are developed for compute-intensive design, engineering and technical analysis problems. The systems are ideal as simulation servers for small-to-medium sized organizations operating in a variety of industries, as well as departments of large organizations that may already utilize Cray Research supercomputers." Automotive Industry Orders Cray Research received four CRAY J916 system orders from the automotive industry -- one from Renault SA, Boulogne- Billancourt, France, and three from engineering/consulting firms that serve automotive manufacturers. Altair Engineering, an automotive consulting company based in Troy, Mich., has been using Cray Research's low-cost compact supercomputers for the past three years and said that compatibility with larger Cray Research supercomputers and the delivered performance of the compact systems were key to its upgrade acquisition. "The delivered performance of the Cray system really drove the decision to acquire our own Cray Research supercomputer," said Jim Scapa, president and chief executive officer for Altair Engineering. "We use our Cray system for numerically intense simulations such as crash analysis and design optimization -- applications that would utterly exhaust our workstations or tie them up for days. The Cray performance and value provide us a significant advantage in handling our customers' toughest problems both here and in Europe." Additional automotive industry customers for the new system include Hawtal Whiting, an engineering design consulting firm, Basildon, UK; and new customer Ove Arup and Partners, London, also an automotive industry consultant. All the world's major auto-makers use Cray Research supercomputers to help them design new vehicles and reduce time-to-market. According to Richard Rossio, general manager, scientific labs and proving grounds for Chrysler Corporation, which has been a Cray Research customer since 1988, "...I believe the automotive supplier market will be an important one for Cray. We are interested in working with Cray to develop this market in order to bring the suppliers up- to-speed with this technology. The new low-cost supercomputers from Cray Research are well-suited for this market." Other Industrial Orders There are three advance orders for the new system from customers in the aerospace industry, including Lockheed Fort Worth Company and a German aerospace research company. In the petroleum and energy industry, CRAY J916 orders came from Amoco Canada Petroleum Company, Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary of Amoco Corp.; Houston Processors Inc., a firm that provides 3D computer modelling and geophysical data processing services to the oil exploration industry; and British Gas' Newcastle, England, facility. Academic/Research Carlson said the company has received 12 orders for CRAY J916 systems from universities and research centers around the world including Wayne State University's chemistry department, Detroit; Penn State University's Center for Space Propulsion Engineering, State College, Penn.; Centre Cyceron, Caen, France; the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo.; and the University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany. All these systems will be used for general academic research in areas including computational chemistry; fluid flow simulation; combustion simulation and engine physics; environmental research and atmospheric physics; and human brain research. The CRAY J916 supercomputer is the third generation of Cray Research systems priced beginning well under $1 million. Cray Research's low-cost product line has helped the company enter other new geographic markets including The Czech Republic, Taiwan, Malaysia and Northern Ireland, Carlson said. The company has recorded more than 250 orders for these low- cost systems since entering the market in late 1991, he noted. Of these orders, over 140 are from new-to-Cray customers in a number of new industries for the company such as banking and finance, construction, as well as the automotive manufacturers' supplier market, he said. The new CRAY J916 supercomputers are scalable, UNIX-based servers with four to 16 processors. Carlson said Cray Research plans to expand the CRAY J90 product line next year. Cray Research provides the leading supercomputing tools and services to help solve customers' most challenging problems. ###