The supercomputer's building blocks

Following are the individual components or "bricks" included in the new

Silicon Graphics Inc. supercomputer:

D-brick: Disk storage. Provides mass storage for data-intensive applications,

supports up to 12 drives and drive capacities of 18G, 36G and 73G.

G-brick: Graphics expansion. Tightly integrated InfiniteReality3 graphics

and large-scale visualization capabilities for accelerated insight into

complex data sets.

X-brick: Ultra high-performance channels. Provides four XIO slots and

supports digital video and other functions.

P-brick: PCI expansion. Provides 12 hot-swappable PCI slots distributed

over 64-bit/66 MHz PCI buses, and total peak I/O bandwidth exceeds 3 gigabits/sec.

I-brick: Base I/O module. Standard in all systems and includes the system

disk, CD-ROM, Ethernet and four available PCI slots. As the system grows,

customers have the option to partition the system for greater availability,

using additional I-bricks as the base I/O for each option.

C-brick: CPU module. The basic C-brick module contains four central

processor units (CPUs) and local memory. A single crossbar memory controller

delivers 200 percent greater CPU-to-memory bandwidth than previous generations.

Now with four CPUs in a C-brick, the system offers a twofold increase in

CPU density, improving memory latency by up to 50 percent.

R-brick: Router Interconnect, a high-speed crossbar connecting processors

and memory and enabling each system component to be serviced or upgraded

individually.

{italics}Source: Silicon Graphics Inc.