Cornell Theory Center Deploys Force10 E-Series in World's Fastest Windows-Based Supercomputer

Business Wire, August 3, 2004

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Force10 Networks today announced that the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) at Cornell University has deployed the Force10 E1200 in its newest high performance cluster, which recently ranked 68 among the world's top supercomputers. The Force10 E-Series links 320 servers in a Windows-based cluster, delivering the reliability and port density that enables the CTC to develop new applications across a range of disparate fields, including computational finance, genomics, materials science and biomedical research.

"The system interconnect is an important piece of the high-performance computing equation," said Dave Lifka, CTC chief technical officer. "The E1200 from Force10 Networks enables CTC to meet the needs of our users who expect reliable availability and stellar performance."

(A case study on the Cornell Theory Center deployment is available at http://www.force10networks.com/applications/profiles.asp)

The Force10 E-Series delivers the line-rate copper Gigabit Ethernet ports the CTC requires to link 320 dual-processor servers in a high performance computing cluster that achieves 1.503 teraflops. Leveraging the advanced hardware and software reliability of the Force10 E-Series, the CTC can develop advanced treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and cystic fibrosis, investigate new optimization algorithms for large-scale portfolio analysis and predict the structural integrity of a wide range of engineered and natural structures.

"By leveraging a familiar operating system, the CTC is taking new steps towards developing high performance clusters that have applications beyond research organizations," said Andrew Feldman, vice president of marketing for Force10 Networks. "For commercial organizations that want to deploy cluster computing, the Force10 E-Series brings the reliability and predictable performance that make clusters in the enterprise a reality."

The CTC's Windows-based cluster brings a new level of simplicity to high performance computing. Using an industry standard operating system enables commercial organizations to seamlessly deploy advanced clusters, reducing administration costs by increasing integration within the organization. The Force10 E-Series provides the backbone of the cluster, delivering the predictable performance that ensures organizations like the CTC can maximize their computing resources.

The CTC is a high performance computing and interdisciplinary research center located on the Ithaca, New York, campus of Cornell University. Scientific and engineering research projects supported by CTC represent a variety of disciplines, including biology, behavioral and social sciences, computer science, engineering, finance, geosciences, mathematics, physical sciences and business.

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the pioneer in scalable resiliency for high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.

Force10, E-Series, EtherScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.