Cray/Media: Steve Conway 612-683-7133 Cray/Financial: Bill Gacki 612-683-7372 Xticket: Dr. Charles Wurtz 212-809-3540 CRAY RESEARCH-XTICKET PACT TARGETS REAL-TIME ANALYSIS OF FIRM-WIDE DERIVATIVES POSITIONS NEW YORK, May 25, 1994 -- Cray Research, Inc. (NYSE:CYR) and Xticket Systems today announced an agreement that would permit real-time, firm-wide analysis of complex trading positions in equity derivatives, including convertible debentures, by combining Cray supercomputer systems with Xticket software. Financial terms were not disclosed. The agreement calls for the two companies to collaborate first in making Xticket's current analytics software for options and convertible debentures available on the CRAY EL94 system, Cray Research's most affordable UNIX-based supercomputer product priced from $150,000 in the U.S. As part of the agreement, a CRAY EL94 system was recently installed in the New York offices of Xticket Systems, according to Dr. Charles Wurtz, Xticket's managing director for corporate strategy. These supercomputer-level, real-time versions of the Xticket software are slated for availability in third-quarter 1994, he said. The CRAY EL94 system will also be used to develop a new generation of real-time risk-management models and algorithms for equity and fixed-income products previously avoided because of their computational complexity, according to Wurtz. "Today's complex analyses cannot be run in real time even on high-end workstation products," he said. "For example, Xticket's two-factor, convertible bond analysis routine took 0.29 seconds on the Cray system, versus almost 20 seconds on a SPARC10 workstation." "Using a Cray supercomputer system as a network resource will provide derivative traders and risk managers with real- time analytical capabilities without requiring each user to have a $30,000 workstation on their desk," said Wurtz. "Even if you discount the far superior speed of the CRAY EL94, this distributed computing architecture is typically cost-effective for any trading operation with seven or more users." "Today's more affordable Cray supercomputer systems are now used as powerful servers in the financial industry by firms such as Merrill-Lynch, Freddie Mac and Atlantic Portfolio Analytics & Management," said Cray Research chief financial officer Mike Lindseth. "This collaboration with Xticket Systems, a leading third-party software developer, is aimed at providing powerful new capabilities to a wide range of financial firms. Cray's role will be to help Xticket Systems achieve its goal to set new industry standards for real-time derivatives risk management. The resultant turnkey solution also advances Cray's strategy of moving into new business applications." Xticket Systems, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with research and development in New York and Los Alamos, develops and markets distributed deal-capture, position- keeping, and real-time risk management systems. Cray Research provides the leading supercomputing tools and services to help solve customers' most challenging problems.