Cray/Media:        Mardi Larson, 612/683-3538
Cray/Financial:    Bill Gacki, 612/683-7372

INDUSTRY-LEADING MPP PROGRAMMING METHODS
INCLUDING OBJECT-ORIENTED' NOW AVAILABLE ON
CRAY RESEARCH'S MPP SYSTEM

Two New Software Products Enhance Programmability
of CRAY T3D System, Ease of Porting for Existing
Applications Software

EAGAN, Minn., July 6, 1994 -- Cray Research, Inc. announced the
immediate availability of two new massively parallel
processing (MPP) software products that make the CRAY T3D
system the easiest, most flexible MPP system in the
marketplace for programmers writing new software
applications or porting existing applications created for vector
systems or on other vendors' MPP systems.   

The products are: CRAFT, a Fortran programming model for MPP
that supports the major MPP programming styles, and C++ for
the CRAY T3D system, which contains a compiler, class
libraries, debuggers, and additional expert-based tools for
programming in the object-oriented C++ language.    

Cray is the first MPP vendor to provide a single programming
model that supports the major MPP programming methods --
traditional message-passing and data parallel programming, as
well as work sharing, a new style made practical by the
hardware design of the CRAY T3D system, according to Irene
Qualters, senior vice president of software of the company.   

"The availability of these new MPP programming products
combined with the CRAY T3D system, the industry's most
balanced MPP hardware, will assist in getting more
applications written for and ported to the CRAY T3D system
first," she said.  

To date, few applications software packages are offered on
MPP systems in the marketplace and only a limited number of
industrial, "real world" problems have been run on the systems
to date, she said.   

"CRAFT for Fortran and our high-level object-oriented C++ are
very important products for the CRAY T3D as they provide new,
more efficient ways to program this MPP system," Qualters
said.  "Because CRAFT supports the most common MPP
programming styles it allows programmers or applications
developers to choose the most appropriate method for their
Fortran-based application.  These tools make MPP programming
considerably easier on the CRAY T3D and alleviate the
recognized difficulties of programming experienced with other
MPP systems."  

In addition to these innovative Cray MPP software products,
the CRAY T3D system has core hardware features that support
ease of programming, Qualters said.  These include physically
distributed, globally shared memory, which allows each
processor to access all other processors' memory; and the
industry's leading interconnect speed and low latency system
bandwidth, making globally shared memory practical for an
MPP system.  

The availability of C++ on the CRAY T3D system places Cray
Research at the forefront of a trend toward "object-oriented"
programming, Qualters said.  Cray Research first made C++
available on the company's parallel vector systems last year. 
The new product allows Cray Research MPP system users to
program in the latest version of C++, a high-level language
where users create software applications using the familiar
objects of their disciplines.  

C++ allows users to program in their terms, resulting in data
structures that more closely mimic the real-life behavior of
these objects.  Once created, the data structures -- referred to
as "objects" -- can be linked like building blocks to create full
applications programs.  The objects can then be stored for
reuse or further development work, as well as be shared with
other researchers or programmers, providing obvious
programming efficiencies.

Both Fortran and C++ are popular among programmers and users
of MPP machines.  The new products are available only on the
CRAY T3D system, which is offered with 32 to 2048
microprocessors.  

This news follows additional MPP software news issued last
week by Cray Research that the company and Livermore
Software Technology, Livermore, Calif., co-sponsored a first-
ever MPP application software workshop where a range of
first-time industrial problems were solved on the CRAY T3D
system.  At the workshop were representatives from more than
a dozen organizations including Alcoa, Alcan International, USX
Corporation's U.S. Steel Group, and Samsung Group.  

With 23 orders since announcing the CRAY T3D system in
September 1993, at U.S. list prices starting from $2.2 million,
Cray Research expects to be the MPP revenue-leader by year-
end 1994, company officials said. 

Cray Research provides the leading supercomputing tools and
services to help solve customers' most challenging problems.

###