Cray Inc. and Intel Corporation announced today they signed a multi-year agreement to advance high-performance computing (HPC) on Intel microprocessors while delivering broad new Intel and Cray technologies in future Cray server systems. The collaboration of these two industry leaders will result in HPC systems that will help solve some of the world's most complex scientific, engineering and humanitarian challenges."We're excited at the potential of bringing together Intel's powerful silicon expertise and Cray's industry leadership in scalable HPC systems," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "We pride ourselves in offering the most innovative supercomputing systems and our customers will now enjoy greater choice in processor technologies.

"This collaboration provides the HPC market segment with access to the best microprocessors the industry has to offer at any point in time, in the most advanced supercomputers in the world," Ungaro added. "This further strengthens Cray's industry-leading adaptive supercomputing vision as we move into the Cascade timeframe and beyond."

The two companies plan to explore future supercomputer component designs such as multi-core processing and advanced interconnects. As a result of this collaboration, Cray and Intel plan to develop a range of HPC systems and technologies over the next several years.

"Cray's commitment to Intel is a testament of our commitment to HPC and the strength of our hardware and software roadmap and many-core research," said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "Throughout Cray's history, it has been an innovator in high-end HPC while Intel has pushed the boundaries of processor technology.

"The combination of this industry leadership and technical strength will allow HPC users to take advantage of future Xeon and other Intel processor technologies," Gelsinger said. "Together we will enable fundamental and historical problems of science and industry to be solved."