From:	 jrzadzki@tsicomm.com
To:	 johnr@tsicomm.com
Subject: With IBM, Linux and Itanium, the University of Illinois aims to
	 prove that it's all relative
Date:	 Tue, 29 May 2001 14:06:26 -0400



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                     IBM DELIVERS NEW ITANIUM-BASED SYSTEMS
            New eServer xSeries and IntelliStation Workstations Form
                  Most Powerful Linux Supercomputer in Academia

ARMONK, N.Y., May 29, 2001 ... IBM today announced new Intel® ItaniumTM-based
eServer* and IntelliStation® workstations which will form a new Linux®
supercluster at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Capable of 1 trillion
calculations per second, a cluster of 160 new IBM Itanium-based systems will be
the most powerful Linux supercluster in academia.

Scientists will use NCSA?s IBM eServer clusters to study a wide range of
research problems, from how gas flows over surfaces at supersonic speeds to
simulations of black hole collisions, which demonstrate principles of Einstein's
General Relativity Theory.  The new Itanium-based eServer cluster will
complement the cluster of 512 eServer x330?s installed earlier this year.

"Linux, Itanium and IBM create a very strong combination," said Dan Reed,
director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance. "We have been
running Linux on IBM Itanium-based servers and workstations for quite some time
and have seen very good performance on applications. These new systems will
provide great additions to the eServer x330 based-Linux Supercluster that is
already installed."

New eServer
The new eServer x380, IBM's first Itanium-based server, was designed as the
industry standard reference platform for IA-64 development efforts.   Available
with up to four processors, the x380 delivers increased performance for data
intensive applications such as data mining and data warehousing, online
transaction processing and security applications. In addition, the x380 is
available with up to 64GB(1) of memory permitting in-memory processing of data
intensive applications, which helps avoid bottlenecks.  System also includes hot
swap and redundant fans and four power supplies, along with hot-swap PCI
technology.

Targeted towards bringing high-end Intel computing into the technical
environment and data center, the x380 can scale up to four processors and scale
out to hundreds of nodes using industry standard clustering technology.


New IntelliStation Z Pro
The new IntelliStation Z Pro announced today is IBM's first workstation to take
advantage of Itanium, creating new solutions for engineers, media creators and
scientists. Working in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, NCSA
scientists using the new IntelliStation Z Pro to study gas flow dynamics have
achieved single-processor performance in excess of 650 megaflops. Engineers can
take advantage of floating point performance to run compute-intensive
applications, such as finite analysis, on lower-cost platforms. And media
creators can design more life-like animations while reducing rendering time.

"Few tasks are more complex or demanding of the capabilities of the host
platform," says Chris Ford, senior product manager, Alias|Wavefront, a leading
software developer of 2D and 3D graphic technology for film and video,
interactive media and industrial design. "Maya's unparalleled capabilities in
physical-based simulation utilize the Itanium processors floating point
performance to maximize throughput of the most complex problems imaginable."

The IntelliStation Z Pro is one of the most reliable workstations available,
with rigorous testing in design and manufacturing, a three-year limited warranty
(2), and the opportunity to communicate directly with the engineering
development team through the "Ask Engineering" program. Systems will be
available June 29, and prices start at $16,799 (3).

NCSA
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge site for
the National Computational Science Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development
and deployment of cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and
information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of
Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal
agencies fund NCSA. For more information see http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu

For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/eserver or
http://www.ibm.com/intellistation.

* The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the
following descriptive term "server" following it.

(1) Maximum memory may require replacement of standard memory with optional
maximum memory module.
(2) For terms and conditions or copies of IBM's Statement of Limited Warranty,
call 1 800 772-2227 in the U.S. and in Canada call 1 800 426-2255.  Telephone
support may be subject to additional charges.
(3)Pricing is price available from IBM directly; reseller prices may vary.  IBM
price does not include tax or shipping and is subject to change without notice.

IBM, the e-business logo, AIX, IntelliStation and xSeries are trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other
countries.

Intel, Itanium and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation.  Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation.  Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.   Other
company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.