SEATTLE, WA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/06/2005 -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced that Cray XD1™ supercomputers will support the latest generation of Xilinx® Virtex-4 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), including the Virtex™-4 LX and SX platform. The Cray XD1 system is designed to employ the Xilinx FPGAs as advanced co-processors that let users accelerate high-performance computing (HPC) applications involving compute-intensive operations, such as digital signal processing or searching and sorting routines.

The Cray XD1 supercomputer is one of the first platforms to deliver true reconfigurable computing. The system overcomes communications delays by integrating Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs at the operating system level and linking them to AMD Opteron™ processors through a high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnect. The Virtex-4 FPGA devices provide up to three times the number of gates, significantly increasing processing power. The Virtex-4 LX platform is ideal for logic-intensive applications such as encryption and search and sort, while the Virtex-4 SX family provides built-in digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities ideal for the extremely large amounts of data required for audio and image manipulation.

"As new generations of Xilinx devices become available, the Cray XD1 supercomputer is ready to make the most of these innovations with an architecture that gives the FPGAs full access to the system's RapidArray interconnect and processor memory," said Amar Shan, Cray XD1 product manager. "We believe reconfigurable computing based on FPGA technology will continue to prove invaluable for researchers and engineers who want to accelerate HPC applications. Companies like Celoxica and others have developed software tools that enable users to take even greater advantage of the Cray XD1 system's FPGA capabilities."

"Cray engineers have developed the world's fastest supercomputers by using our latest FPGA technology in an innovative way to accelerate their main CPUs," said Chuck Tralka, director of marketing for the Advanced Products Division at Xilinx. "The latest generation of Virtex-4 devices provide the high-performance features required to implement such forward-thinking technology."

"At Sandia National Laboratories, a central part of our reconfigurable computing research effort involves work with the FPGA-equipped Cray XD1 supercomputer," said Craig Ulmer of Sandia National Laboratory's Visualization & Scientific Computing group. "The Cray XD1 system's architecture provides unique opportunities for accelerating scientific applications using FPGA co-processors. We are looking forward to being able to leverage the latest generation of Xilinx FPGAs in order to improve our reconfigurable computing capabilities."

About the Cray XD1 Supercomputer

The Cray XD1 supercomputer combines direct-connect system architecture, HPC-optimized Linux, management and reconfigurable computing technologies to deliver exceptional performance on real-world applications. Purpose-built for demanding HPC applications such as computational chemistry, environmental forecasting and computer-aided engineering (CAE), the Cray XD1 system lets users simulate, analyze and solve complex problems more quickly and accurately. The AMD64-based Cray XD1 system supports a broad range of 32- and 64-bit HPC applications on AMD Opteron single- or dual-core processors. The Cray XD1 system also provides application acceleration capabilities using FPGA technology tightly connected to the direct-connect structure.

About Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs

Named 2004 Product of the Year by Electronic Products Magazine, Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGAs deliver more options, higher performance and lower power than the other FPGA products currently available. Manufactured using the world's first triple-oxide 90nm CMOS technology with 11-layer metal interconnect, Virtex-4 devices represent a significant advance in programmable device architecture, technology and system design capabilities. Go to http://www.xilinx.com/virtex4 for more information.

About Cray Inc.

As the global leader in HPC, Cray provides innovative supercomputing systems that enable scientists and engineers in government, industry and academia to meet both existing and future computational challenges. Building on years of experience in designing, developing, marketing and servicing the world's most advanced supercomputers, Cray offers a comprehensive portfolio of HPC systems that deliver unrivaled sustained performance on a wide range of applications. Go to http://www.cray.com for more information.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. These include the technical challenges of developing high-performance computing systems, the successful porting of application programs to Cray computer systems, reliance on third-party suppliers and Cray's ability to keep up with rapid technological change. For a discussion of these and other risks, see "Factors That Could Affect Future Results" in Cray's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.

Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray XD1 is a trademark, of Cray Inc. Xilinx and Virtex are trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. AMD, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.