Silicon Graphics introduces SGI Altix 1350 cluster in the Middle East

The cluster is designed to support the most demanding application mix in a multi-user environment, with unsurpassed scalability.

The cluster uses a cost effective Intel Itanium 2 processor based cluster platform, that offers optimum performance and efficiently supports complex, mixed workloads and dynamic resource requirements.

"SGI Altix 1350 provides customers with the quality and performance that they have come to expect from SGI. Clusters have rapidly transitioned from an emerging technology to a standard component of the high-performance computing environments. The Middle East region has seen a surge in demand for advanced computing systems as a result of the major expansion and development activities taking place in the region," said Gilbert Soufan, General Manager, SGI Middle East and Africa.

"The new cluster can address emerging end user requirements in such areas as providing powerful and scalable nodes, providing a unified cluster management environment. With the Altix 1350 cluster, we are making it easier than ever for customers to deploy a cluster solution that not only meets their workload demands today, but also has the headroom for scalability in the future," added Soufan.

The new cluster has a modular architecture that can independently scale processors, memory, and Input/Output resources on the node, for best results in system right-sizing and resource efficiency. It has highly scalable nodes that can handle more real work with fewer systems, which significantly reduces the overall cost of solution by decreasing requirements for interconnect fabric, software licenses and administration.

The advanced system design of the cluster leverages the best of large node capability and cluster capacity, with nodes that can scale to 32 processors and 384GB of memory. Built on Linux® operating system, the cluster ensures best performance and enhanced investment protection. The solution includes the industry's leading cluster, interconnect and system management tools from SGI, Voltaire and Scali.

"The new SGI® Altix® 1350 cluster provides a cost-effective and easy to administer solution, that brings exceptional flexibility and scalability to any computing environment. We are certain to generate substantial demand for this product in the Middle East market, taking into account the increased IT spending and implementation by most organisations in the region," concluded Soufan.