Georgia Tech Leadership in Cell/B.E. Processor Research IncludesStatus as One of the First Universities to Receive IBM QS20 BladeServers

ATLANTA, May 31, 2007 - The College of Computing at Georgia Techtoday announced it will host the Georgia Tech Cell Broadband Engine™(Cell/B.E.) Processor Workshop from June 18-19, 2007, focusing onapplications for the Cell/B.E. processor, including gaming, virtualreality, home entertainment, tools and programmability and highperformance scientific and technical computing.

The two-day workshop is sponsored by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.(SCEI), Toshiba and IBM and will be held at the Klaus AdvancedComputing Building on Georgia Tech's campus. Keynote speakers at theevent include Bijan Davari, IBM Fellow and Vice President, NextGeneration Computing Systems and Technology; Dominic Mallinson, VicePresident, US Research and Development, SCEI and Yoshio Masubuchi,General Manager, Broadband System LSI Development Center, Toshiba'ssemiconductor company. More information on the workshop may be found athttp://sti.cc.gatech.edu/.

"We are very excited to be able to support the growth of thisbreakthrough technology by bringing some of the top minds in theindustry together at Georgia Tech to stimulate discussion about thefuture of Cell/B.E. technology," said David A. Bader, AssociateProfessor and Executive Director of High-Performance Computing in theCollege of Computing at Georgia Tech. "The Cell/B.E. processorrepresents the future of computing using heterogeneous multi-coreprocessors, and we are proud to help drive the continued advancement ofcomputationally-intensive applications that will directly impact theglobal growth of our industry and evolution of our society."

The revolutionary Cell/B.E. processor is a breakthrough designfeaturing a central processing core, based on IBM's industry leadingPower Architecture™ technology, and eight synergistic processors. Cell/B.E. "supercharges" compute-intensive applications, offering fastperformance for computer entertainment and handhelds, virtual-reality,wireless downloads, real-time video chat, interactive TV shows andother "image-hungry" computing environments. The processor was createdthrough a collaboration of IBM, Sony Corporation, SCEI and ToshibaCorporation (Toshiba).

The College of Computing also announced today that it is one of thefirst universities to deploy the IBM BladeCenter® QS20 Server forproduction use. The QS20 uses the same ground-breaking Cell/B.E.processor appearing in products such as Sony Computer Entertainment'sPLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and Toshiba's CellReference Set, a development tool for Cell/B.E. applications. TheGeorgia Tech installation includes a cluster of 28 Cell/B.E. processors(14 blades) and supports the operation of Cell-optimized multi-coreapplications in areas such as digital content creation, gaming andentertainment, security, scientific and technical computing,biomedicine, and finance. Georgia Tech will grant users access on thecluster to test drive the Cell/B.E. processor and support independentsoftware vendors (ISVs) that develop products and tools for theCell/B.E. processor. The Georgia Tech Cell/B.E. processor installationwill use Altair Engineering's PBS Professional job scheduling softwarethat increases the utilization of the IBM Blade Center® QS20.

Directed by Bader, the STI Cell Center of Competence at Georgia Techhas a mission to grow the community of Cell/B.E. processor users anddevelopers by performing research and service in support of theCell/B.E. processor, and further enable students at the College to growtheir skills and experience around Cell/B.E. technology to apply infuture career opportunities. The Center will sponsor discussion forumsand workshops, provide remote access to Cell/B.E processor based bladehardware installed at Georgia Tech, create and disseminate softwareoptimized for Cell/B.E. processor based systems, and perform researchon the design of Cell/B.E. processor based systems, algorithms, andapplications. A collaboration with SCEI, Toshiba and IBM supports theCenter's activities and research efforts in support of broadening theCell/B.E. processor's impact into multiple sectors and industries,including scientific computing, digital content creation,bioinformatics, finance, gaming and entertainment.

About the College of Computing at Georgia Tech
The College of Computing at Georgia Tech is a national leader in theresearch and creation of real-world computing breakthroughs that drivesocial and scientific progress. With its graduate program ranked 11thnationally by U.S. News and World Report, the College's unconventionalapproach to education is pioneering the new era of computing byexpanding the horizons of traditional computer science students throughinterdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on human centeredsolutions. For more information about the College of Computing atGeorgia Tech, its academic divisions and research centers, please visitwww.cc.gatech.edu.

For more information, contact:
Stefany Wilson
College of Computing at Georgia Tech
404.894.7253
stefany@cc.gatech.edu
www.cc.gatech.edu