SGI Wins Contract From UK Atomic Weapons Establishment To Install ICE XA Systems

(RTTNews) - Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI), a provider of high-performance solutions for compute, data analytics and data management, announced Tuesday that the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment or AWE has awarded a contract to install SGI's SGI ICE XA systems for its new supercomputer.

The new system will be comprised of two SGI ICE XA systems, SGI's sixth generation and newest high performance computing system.

The AWE is responsible for the provision of nuclear warheads to support the UK's nuclear deterrent, Trident. This encompasses the initial concept, assessment and design of the warheads, through component manufacture and assembly, in-service support, decommissioning and then disposal.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibits any test that produces any nuclear yield underground, underwater, in the atmosphere or in space. AWE must therefore continually develop methods to verify the safety and reliability of nuclear warheads through a science-based programme. The new systems will further boost AWE's sophisticated scientific and technological capabilities.

The two SGI ICE XA systems will provide AWE with even greater scale and flexibility to complete scientific modelling at higher resolutions and faster processing speeds than ever before.

SGI noted that this will be one of the first customer installations globally of SGI ICE XA, taking energy efficiency and flexible packaging to new levels.

As part of the new contract, SGI will also provide AWE with an extensive service component that includes a dedicated on-site customer support person, full project management and an extensive installation team.