Cray Shasta Supercomputer to Power Weather Forecasting for the U.S. Air Force
Strategic Partnership with Oak Ridge National Lab Highlights First Cray Shasta Supercomputer for Operational Weather Forecasting
SEATTLE, Aug. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq:CRAY) today announced that the first Cray Shasta™ supercomputing system for operational weather forecasting and meteorology will be acquired by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The powerful high-performance computing capabilities of the new system, named HPC11, will enable higher fidelity weather forecasts for U.S. Air Force and Army operations worldwide. The contract is valued at $25 million.
“We’re excited with our Oak Ridge National Laboratory strategic partner’s selection of Cray to provide Air Force Weather’s next high performance computing system,” said Steven Wert, Program Executive Officer Digital, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, and a member of the Senior Executive Service. “The system’s performance will be a significant increase over the existing HPC capability and will provide Air Force Weather operators with the ability to run the next generation of high-resolution, global and regional models, and satisfy existing and emerging warfighter needs for environmental impacts to operations planning.”
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a history of deploying the world’s most powerful supercomputers and through this partnership, will provide supercomputing-as-a-service on the HPC11 Shasta system to the Air Force 557th Weather Wing. The 557th Weather Wing develops and provides comprehensive terrestrial and space weather information to the U.S. Air Force and Army. The new system will feature the revolutionary Cray Slingshot™ interconnect, with features to better support time-critical numerical weather prediction workloads, and will enhance the Air Force’s capabilities to create improved weather forecasts and weather threat assessments so that Air Force missions can be carried out more effectively.
“The HPC11 system will be the first Shasta delivery to the production weather segment, and we’re proud to share this milestone with ORNL and the Air Force,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO at Cray. “The years of innovation behind Shasta and Slingshot and the success of prior generations of Cray systems continue to demonstrate Cray’s ability to support demanding 24/7 operations like weather forecasting. This is a great example of the upcoming Exascale Era bringing a new set of technologies to bear on challenging problems and empowering the Air Force to more effectively execute on its important mission.”
HPC11 will be ORNL’s first Cray Shasta system, as well as the first supercomputing system with 2nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processors for use in operational weather forecasting. HPC11 will join the 85% bastion of weather centers that rely on Cray, and will feature eight Shasta cabinets in a dual-hall configuration.
“We are incredibly excited to continue our strategic collaboration with Cray to deliver the first Shasta supercomputer to the U.S. Air Force, helping to improve the fidelity of weather forecasts for U.S. military operations around the globe,” said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Datacenter and Embedded Systems Group, AMD. “The 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors provide exceptional performance in highly complex workloads, a necessary component to power critical weather prediction workloads and deliver more accurate forecasts.”
The system is expected to be delivered in Q4 2019 and accepted in early 2020.
About Cray Inc.
Cray Inc. (Nasdaq:CRAY) combines computation and creativity so visionaries can keep asking questions that challenge the limits of possibility. Drawing on more than 45 years of experience, Cray develops the world’s most advanced supercomputers, pushing the boundaries of performance, efficiency and scalability. Cray continues to innovate today at the convergence of data and discovery, offering a comprehensive portfolio of supercomputers, high-performance storage, data analytics and artificial intelligence solutions. Go to for more information.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, including, but not limited to, statements related to Cray’s ability to deliver a system that meets the Air Force’s and ORNL’s requirements. These statements involve current expectations, forecasts of future events and other statements that are not historical facts. Inaccurate assumptions and known and unknown risks and uncertainties can affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements and cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect actual future events or results include, but are not limited to, the risk that the system required by the Air Force and ORNL is not delivered in a timely fashion or does not perform as expected and such other risks as identified in the Company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, and from time to time in other reports filed by Cray with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this release. Cray undertakes no duty to publicly announce or report revisions to these statements as new information becomes available that may change the Company’s expectations.
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