Finnish Meteorological Institute Selects SGI Technology for National Weather Forecasting and International Climate Research

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., and HELSINKI, Finland, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Silicon Graphics and Finnish IT systems distributor Atea, an SGI(R) Channel partner, today announced that the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has selected a SGI(R) Altix(R) high performance computer to deliver increasingly accurate land, high-altitude and marine weather predictions for Finland. At FMI, half of the new SGI Altix system will be dedicated to more highly defined climate modeling and research for national and international atmospheric efforts, especially for monitoring the greenhouse effect and global warming; the remaining half is designed to provide much more detailed and improved short-term weather forecasting from combined observational and satellite data.

A long-time SGI and Atea customer, FMI, with 550 employees, wanted to replace older computers with the Altix system running the Linux(R) OS, as well as to easily port complex mathematical codes representing higher definition climate models.

"We chose the SGI Altix because of the computer's shared memory architecture, which means that every processor has access to the complete memory; this makes it a very strong general purpose machine that is easy to port software to," said Dr. Johan Silen, IT Director, Finnish Meteorological Institute. "The other reason we chose the SGI system is that the Itanium 2 processor is a very powerful processor. The benchmarks we ran for our operational code were completely superior to any of the competitors."

Another reason FMI chose the SGI Altix is the flexibility of the system. FMI plans initially to segment the system's processors into a larger and a smaller configuration to ensure that there is always processing power for detailed weather predictions regardless of situation. Smaller models can be run on the smaller configuration while high-resolution regional modeling codes, used by international organizations, will run on the larger group of 256 CPUs. This segmentation can be changed on the fly, allocating all the processors to one job or making a number of different configurations.

"The Altix is a very special kind of machine because you can combine and scale it to a very large number of CPUs, but you can also segment it into separate, independent units. Processing power left over from our operational needs will be used for the mathematics research, especially for climatology modeling on the greenhouse effects," said Dr. Silen. "The essential thing the Altix will allow us to do is double the resolution of our weather codes which means we double the accuracy of our predictions. And when you double resolution, the calculation burden is a factor of 16 or larger. Further, it was one of the requirements that the Altix perform higher resolution calculations at a factor of 36, for the HIRLAM (High Resolution Limited Area Model), which is used to improve the reliability of one to two day regional forecasts, and the Altix platform has already proven it can do that quite well."

The main objective of the FMI is to provide the best possible information about the atmosphere above and around Finland, and to ensure public safety relating to atmospheric and airborne hazards. FMI is also active in European research and development programs in the fields of atmospheric sciences, environment, marine sciences, energy, dispersion and transport and Arctic monitoring through more than 100 individual projects. FMI actively participates in European Union research programs especially on the topics of stratospheric ozone depletion, climate and atmospheric composition changes, wind energy, Baltic Sea pollution and urban air pollution.

About Atea

Atea is the Nordic countries' leading provider of advice, sales, distribution and integration services for IT products. The company's business concept is to simplify and rationalize its customers' handling of IT products throughout their life cycle. Through Atea Value Chain, Atea offers an end-to-end concept for IT product supply. The value chain covers everything from analysis, advice, delivery and installation to recycling or discarding of worn-out IT products. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Atea can be found on the Web at http://www.atea.com/.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM)

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com/.

NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and The Source of Innovation and Discovery is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact Marla Robinson 256-773-2371 marlar@sgi.com Milva Naguib SGI EMEA +39 025756118 milvan@sgi.com SGI PR Hotline 650-933-7777 SGI PR Facsimile 650-933-0283