NEC Ships First Itanium 2 Processor-based Blade Server; First Major Enterprise Manufacturer Ships Blade Server with 64-Bit Computing Power and InfiniBand Capabilities

Business Wire, Nov 9, 2004

PITTSBURGH -- Today at SC 2004, NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, beat the competition by becoming the first major enterprise hardware manufacturer to begin shipping an Intel(R) Itanium 2 processor-based blade server. The Express5800/1020Ba Blade server offers 64-bit computing power, InfiniBand capabilities and unprecedented memory capacity, designed for organizations running multi-thread processor intensive applications.

The Express5800/1020Ba meets the needs of Fortune 1000 enterprises, research institutions and universities; this Itanium 2 blade server is ideal for running high performance analytical applications such as genome mapping, weapons research and financial market simulation, all of which are functions that demand significant processor power.

Pharmaceutical corporations can take advantage of the Itanium 2 processor and InfiniBand capabilities of the Express5800/1020Ba blade server to help predict molecular properties in new drugs or running 3D simulation structural models of potential new drugs, saving time and money in the research lab. Automotive manufacturers running crash test simulation analysis can help save fleets of real cars by crash testing car designs against a virtual concrete wall. Furthermore, investment banks that predict market performance are able to build complex market simulations and simultaneously run custom financial performance applications to improve portfolio management, while increasing investor profits.

Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of the Solutions Platform Group for NEC Solutions America believes by shipping the industry's first Itanium 2 processor-based blade server the competition will sit up and take notice.

"NEC has vaulted ahead of the competition and set an industry president by providing customers with the only Itanium 2 processor-based blade server with InfiniBand technology available in the market," said Sheffield. "Enterprise and research organizations looking for technology solutions that are both innovative and efficient need to look no further, this new blade server will help them cut operational costs and save resources that can have a positive impact on their bottom line and resource allocation."

Features/Benefits

The NEC Express5800/1020Ba blade server interfaces with external devices via its InfiniBand PCI-X host adapter, offering 1GB per second throughput and delivering up to eight simultaneous communications paths over a single cable. To offer businesses the most processing power per rack space unit, each Express5800/1020Ba blade server comes standard with two Itanium 2 processors, allowing each 1.6GHz processor blade to deliver 12.8 GFLOPS performance, with nine blades fitting into a single 10U chassis, providing up to 18 processors per chassis, making it possible to implement a system that will deliver over 345 GFLOPS of processing power per cabinet.

The blades are fast and easy to deploy, with hot-swappable capabilities, making implementation efficient and, allowing for uninterrupted operation when adding, moving or replacing blades.

Additional Product Features

--24 GB of expandable memory provide companies valuable long term protection of IT investment.

--Automatic fail-over with redundant switches provides uninterrupted availability.

--Two on-board 73GB U320 SCSI hard drives and built-in I/O -- two Gb Ethernet ports.

--Built-in management interface providing centralized system management of all blades in the chassis, as well as other blades connected over IP.

--Enhanced blade server design consolidates cables, power supplies, storage and network switching onto a single chassis.

--Simplified set-up and maintenance with shared keyboard/mouse/video interface.

The Express5800/1020Ba Blade server is designed to operate most efficiently in Linux clusters, administered as a single system. Red Hat(R) Enterprise Linux WS is also available, providing a solid platform that is far more straightforward to deploy and administer than other clusters.

Pricing & Availability

The Express5800/1020Ba is base priced at $79,000 for the chassis, nine two-way blades, each with 2GB of memory, 136GB of hard drive storage and redundant power. Installation, software and maintenance are priced separately. The Express5800/1020Ba is currently shipping and is available through ISV LSTC Software, and their core product is LS-Dyna http://www.lstc.com/master.htm or direct through NEC.

NEC's Itanium server technology will be on display in NEC's booth (#705) including partners Team 1 (#302) and Topspin (#1649) at SuperComputing conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.

About NEC Solutions America

NEC Solutions (America), Inc. is a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America. As an affiliate of NEC Corporation (Nasdaq:NIPNY) (FTSE:6701q.1), NEC Solutions America taps into a global resource network to help clients leverage technology to achieve a competitive edge. From mobile enterprise computing systems, biometric security solutions, business intelligence, projector and plasma display solutions, business services management and IT professional services, the expertise is delivered with the personal attention needed to address individual situations. With headquarters in Rancho Cordova, California, NEC Solutions America maintains research, marketing, sales, and support facilities throughout the United States. Information regarding NEC Solutions America can be found at www.necsam.com.