OctigaBay Advances High Performance Computing with the 64-bit Capable AMD Opteron™ Processor

OctigaBay 12K Architecture Promises 3 Times Price / Performance Increase

Vancouver, Canada -- 11/3/2003 -- OctigaBay today announced that the AMD Opteron™ processor will power the OctigaBay 12K high performance computing (HPC) platform. The OctigaBay 12K combines the superior processing power and I/O of the AMD Opteron processor with breakthrough innovations in interconnect and management to deliver three times better price performance than leading HPC solutions. The OctigaBay 12K is purpose-built to accelerate the performance of processing intensive applications such as simulation, modeling, searching, sorting and data mining applications.

The AMD Opteron processor provides several advantages that make it ideal for high performance computing. An integrated memory controller increases memory bandwidth and reduces latencies, three HyperTransport™ links per processor provide up to 19.2 Gigabytes per second I/O bandwidth, and superior floating point and integer operations provide superior computing performance. Combining non-proprietary 64-bit computing with the x-86 instruction set, the AMD Opteron processor supports a wide range of existing HPC applications.

The OctigaBay 12K is designed around the new Direct Connected Processor (DCP) architecture. With the industry trend to link many processors to achieve greater performance, the limiting factor becomes a system’s ability to feed the processor with data. Traditional high performance computing architectures connect processors through shared memory (SMP systems) or I/O buses (cluster systems), limiting scalability and performance. OctigaBay’s Direct Connected Processor (DCP) architecture addresses these limitations by taking advantage of the AMD Opteron processor’s high performance I/O, fusing the processor directly to the interconnect fabric and eliminating memory contention and PCI bus bottlenecks.

“AMD has long recognized the importance of streamlining data transfer to the processors,” said Marty Seyer, vice president and general manager of AMD’s Microprocessor Business Unit. “The AMD Opteron processor’s unique memory and I/O features directly benefit OctigaBay’s innovative 12K platform and provide the bonus of outstanding 32-bit performance. We look forward to working with OctigaBay to make this technology available to a broad spectrum of scientific and technical users.”

"Many HPC applications require 64-bit processors to address problems that require a larger memory space and for additional precision," said Earl Joseph, IDC program vice president. "The AMD Opteron family of processors provide a unique capability in offering both 32-bit compatibility and 64-bit processing. The OctigaBay 12K is an interesting system design that connects large numbers of Opteron processors directly to a high bandwidth, low latency interconnect fabric and provides system management features to make the computer look and feel like a single system, instead of a cluster of many separate computers in order to address customer requirements for higher performing computers.”

“The OctigaBay 12K marries the performance of large SMPs with the economics of cluster solutions,” said John Seminerio, president and CEO of OctigaBay. “We’re excited to collaborate with AMD to give HPC users a more powerful yet more economical 64-bit computing solution. “

About the OctigaBay 12K
The revolutionary architectural design of the OctigaBay 12K outperforms existing SMP platforms, while the use of off-the-shelf components dramatically reduces overall cost. Each OctigaBay 12K shelf provides:

• 12 64-bit x-86 compatible AMD Opteron processors for 58 GFLOPS
• HPC-optimized Linux operating system
• 12 specialized communications processors and a 1 Tb/s embedded switching fabric for up to 8 GB/s to each AMD Opteron processor with 1 microsecond latency
• Dedicated system management software, hardware and supervisory network
• Active Manager GUI for ease of operation, maintenance and management, and
• Six Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processors for application acceleration

Up to 12 OctigaBay 12K shelves can be assembled in a single rack, providing 691 GFLOPS of processing power. OctigaBay 12K systems scale to over 12,000 processors without requiring any external switches.

The OctigaBay 12K system will be featured at SuperComputing 2003 in Phoenix, AZ, November 17 - 19, 2003. Systems will be commercially available early in 2004.

About OctigaBay Systems Corporation
OctigaBay Systems Corporation is pioneering an innovative new class of High Performance Computing products that delivers the performance of high-end SMP systems at a fraction of the cost. Addressing the most challenging needs of business and research institutions, OctigaBay’s products are ideal for simulation, modeling, searching, sorting, data mining and other processing intensive applications. For more information, please visit www.octigabay.com or contact us at info@octigabay.com.

Contact:
Melissa Moffi
Interprose Public Relations
401-454-1314
melissa_moffi@interprosepr.com