MSC Orders Cray T3D MPP Sys MSCI: John Sell 612-337-3450 Cray/Media: Steve Conway 612-683-7133 Cray/Financial: Bill Gacki 612-683-7372 MINNESOTA SUPERCOMPUTER CENTER ORDERS CRAY T3D MASSIVELY PARALLEL PROCESSING SYSTEM MINNEAPOLIS, NOV. 17, 1993--The Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc. (MSCI) and Cray Research, Inc. (NYSE: CYR) today announced an agreement under which MSCI will acquire a CRAY T3D massively parallel processing (MPP) system. The agreement also calls for MSCI and Cray Research to collaborate in making additional commercial software applications available on the CRAY T3D system. Terms were not disclosed. Under the terms of the agreement, a 128-processor CRAY T3D system is scheduled to be installed at MSCI in first-quarter 1994. The new MPP system will be closely coupled with MSCI's existing 8-processor CRAY C916 parallel vector supercomputer system, said MSCI president John Sell. "The heterogenous computing environment we establish with the CRAY T3D system creates a tremendous new resource for MSCI's users, especially commercial customers who want to move their applications to the MPP arena," said Sell. "In addition, MSCI and Cray Research will be working together to develop new commercial applications and to help port leading third-party applications onto the CRAY T3D system. The main focus of this collaboration will be the petroleum and automotive industries, though we will target other commercial applications as well." "We expect this collaboration to play an important part in making MPP technology more practical for industrial commercial organizations," he said. Sell said MSCI recently announced an agreement with telecommunications leader Sprint to collaborate in advancing ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology, and that remote users of the CRAY T3D will be able to access the system using this state-of-the-art networking environment. "The CRAY T3D system, when coupled with the already successful CRAY C916 system, provides MSCI's customers with scientific computing tools which are second to none. Accessing these systems through the power of the country's first large-scale ATM network creates an ideal opportunity for industrial and commercial users to begin to employ MPP technology. This acquisition of the CRAY T3D system extends MSCI's leadership in the high-performance computing services marketplace." "We are pleased that a long-time customer like MSCI will be making the CRAY T3D system available to the center's users nationwide, and we look forward to working together with MSCI on MPP commercial applications development," said Cray Research chairman and CEO John F. Carlson. "We said earlier that the CRAY T3D system will rapidly expand the number of applications available in the MPP arena. This collaboration with MSCI will be an important part of that effort. The Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc. is a for-profit corporation founded in 1982 which provides advanced computing services to industrial, government and academic customers across the country. Cray Research creates the most powerful, highest-quality computational tools for solving the world's most challenging industrial and scientific problems. ###