Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 15:02:56 +0000
To: corbet@eklektix.com (Jonathan Corbet)
From: Scott McConnachie <smcc@alphadata.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Press Release 

Date: December 8th 1999

Press Release				
  

December 1999: Alpha Data Parallel Systems Ltd. of Edinburgh, UK are
pleased to announce the launch of the Alpha Node.  This  new and exciting
product utilizes four high performance Alpha processors in a slimline 2U
rackmout  unit. The Alpha Node is unique in that it has been designed from
the bottom-up to be used as a building block for Beowulf systems and Linux
clusters. The design of both hardware and software has been optimized to
provide the best performance for scaleable computing. Prices for Alpha Node
start in the region of $10,000.

"As Linux and Beowulf clusters push into the commercial and industrial
arenas, Alpha Node will be at the forefront of this technology providing a
cost effective and professional solution. The price and performance
achievable with Beowulf clusters make them viable alternatives to more
traditional high-end computers and supercomputers." comments Scott
McConnachie, Marketing Manger. "Beowulf  clusters would use many PC
chassises  which carry additional features not required by a pure
processing node. Alpha Node replaces PCs with 5.3GFLOPS 2U boxes, when you
consider up to 20 Alpha Node units fit into a single rack mount enclosure,
the price/performance /footprint advantage quickly becomes apparent."

Alpha Data specializes in high-performance computing and offers a range of
hardware and software solutions for compute-intensive applications,
providing customers with scaleable, parallel processing systems and add-on
boards.  Suitable applications include Digital Signal Processing (DSP),
image processing, molecular simulation, fluid dynamics, neural networks,
weather forecasting and financial modeling. 

Alpha Node Product Highlights

*	Processors: 4 * Alpha up to 667MHz, each processor supports up to 1GB
SDRAM and 8MB level 3 cache.

*	Expansion and Clustering: 8 * 100 Base TX Fast Ethernet and 4 * PMC (PCI
Mezzanine Card) sites for further expansion and integration of many PMC
cards  such as Frame Grabbers or Fiber Channel Interface cards.  This gives
an excellent scope to add a huge number of third-party PMC cards opening up
the Alpha Node to many diverse applications.

*	Software: supplied bundled with Red Hat Linux and Parallel Processing
software such as MPI, PVM GUI debugger, performance monitor and code editor. 

For more information please visit http://www.alphadata.co.uk,  contact
sales@alphadata.co.uk or phone +44 131 555 0303
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