March 13, 2008 07:25 ET

Cray Joins European Automotive Simulation Center

Public-Private Partnership to Advance Research in Automotive Technologies

SEATTLE, WA and HEIDELBERG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - March 13, 2008) - Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced that its German subsidiary has joined the Automotive Simulation Center Stuttgart (ASCS), a groundbreaking and innovative public-private partnership aimed at advancing the automobile industry through high-performance computing (HPC). Composed of software designers, scientists and researchers and top automobile manufacturers, ASCS will combine the expertise of key scientists and industry representatives with leading-edge supercomputing technologies to conduct research aimed at developing quiet, low pollution vehicles; creating products for the market that reduce fuel consumption, lower CO2 emissions and enhance safety; increasing cost efficiency and speeding time to market with new products.

ASCS members include the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, automobile manufacturers Porsche, Daimler and Opel and software vendors ABAQUS, Altair Engineering, DYNAmore, Engineous Software and INTES, among others. ASCS will utilize industry-leading supercomputing technologies at the High Performance Computing Center at the University of Stuttgart.

"Groundbreaking advancements in both science and industry come about through the collaboration of scientific expertise and the most innovative and highly scalable technology," said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. "ASCS is bringing together industry experts and top scientists with the aim of developing products and energy-efficient technologies as well as enhancing product development and optimization practices for the automobile industry throughout the world. We are thrilled to be part of this project and look forward to seeing and benefiting from the innovations that result."

The initial funding for the project was provided by the Ministry of Science of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg and the University of Stuttgart. The ultimate goal is to establish ASCS as a non-profit organization to be funded through membership fees and third-party contributions. The first ASCS projects on fuel injection optimization and increasing product development efficiencies are now getting underway.

"ASCS provides the opportunity for Cray to engage with both industrial HPC users and software vendors at the earliest stage of the mathematical simulation process," said Dr. Ulla Thiel, vice president of Cray Europe. "We helped found ASCS as part of Cray's growing R&D commitment in Europe and to the ongoing collaboration between science and industry. We are delighted to offer industrial customers access to Cray's strong HPC expertise through this partnership."

About Cray Inc.

As a global leader in supercomputing, Cray provides highly advanced supercomputers and world-class services and support to government, industry and academia. Cray technology enables scientists and engineers to achieve remarkable breakthroughs by accelerating performance, improving efficiency and extending the capabilities of their most demanding applications. Cray's Adaptive Supercomputing vision will result in innovative next-generation products that integrate diverse processing technologies into a unified architecture, allowing customers to surpass today's limitations and meeting the market's continued demand for realized performance. Go to www.cray.com for more information.

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