NCSA announces a National Data Laboratory SCR

In September, NCSA announced that it will create a National Data Laboratory
to develop and deploy advanced technology for HPCC applications. NCSA is
purchasing a Silicon Graphics Inc. POWER CHALLENGE to launch the data lab.
Leveraging its leadership in high-performance database engines and visual
computing as well as its systems' ability to handle extremely large
datasets, Silicon Graphics will be the first vendor in NCSA's National Data
Laboratory, delivering this technology to NCSA's industrial partners in
mainstream commercial markets such as finance, telecommunications, and
manufacturing.

High-performance commercial computing uses advanced technology -- for
example, parallel processing, high-performance databases, high-speed
networks, and advanced data mining techniques -- to enable more competitive
use of data. According to the Gartner Group, the commercial parallel
computing market is growing at 70% annually, with an expected market value
of $5.3 billion by the end of 1998.

The NCSA National Data Laboratory will take advantage of software
technologies based on "intelligent algorithms" for recognizing and analyzing
patterns in commercial databases, coupled with advanced visualization
techniques. Examples of intelligent algorithms include neural networks that
mimic the processes of the human brain and genetic algorithms that mirror
the process of natural evolution. Such technologies are becoming
increasingly more important in understanding consumer purchasing trends,
detecting credit card or financial trading fraud, and other complex data
analysis problems.

"NCSA has provided technology and tools that have radically changed the use
of supercomputers and networks in scientific and technical environments,"
says NCSA Director Larry Smarr. "Our relationship with Silicon Graphics will
allow both organizations to deliver the latest high-performance commercial
computing technology to leading Fortune 500 companies."

The new National Data Laboratory, to be established on the UIUC campus, will
be equipped with security capabilities to enable handling of sensitive
commercial data. This data can include text, images, voice, animations, or
digital video as NCSA explores the use of the emerging object-relational
databases. NCSA's state-of-the-art virtual reality and data visualization
facilities, originally created for scientific data visualization, will be
used to develop and test new technology for commercial applications. Silicon
Graphics' Onyx graphics workstations and CHALLENGE servers will be used as
development and serving platforms. These systems will be tightly coupled to
NCSA's 64-processor POWER CHALLENGEarray scalable computer system to enable
the most powerful computations in support of the data analysis.

The collaboration by NCSA and SGI will enable businesses to retrieve,
comprehend, and analyze data from very large databases, as well as make
timely decisions. For example, visualization is a technology that is key to
understanding data. Applying visualization to high-performance commercial
computing will provide decision makers with insight and knowledge, allowing
companies to maintain their competitive edge in today's global marketplace.

"Revolutionary changes are occurring in commercial processing," says Ross
Bott, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Network
Systems Division. "The rapid growth in the amount of data available today,
coupled with new technologies that exploit this information, are making
traditional data processing techniques uncompetitive. With customers mining
databases larger than 500GB, Silicon Graphics is driving the
high-performance commercial computing revolution. Our collaboration with
NCSA will accelerate this revolution." Silicon Graphics Inc., a leading
manufacturer of high- performance visual and commercial computing systems,
delivers interactive 3D graphics, digital media, and symmetric
multiprocessing supercomputing technologies to technical and commercial
environments. Its subsidiary, MIPS Technologies Inc., designs and licenses
the industry's leading RISC processor technology for computer systems and
embedded control markets. Silicon Graphics Inc., headquartered in Mountain
View, CA, has offices worldwide.

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