SGI COLLABORATES WITH NIMSAT TO ENHANCE NATIONAL SAFETY.

SGI (NASDAQ:SGIC), Sunnyvale, Calif., has teamed with the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to develop and deliver technologies that will help prepare the nation for emergencies and facilitate response and recovery activities in the event of a disaster.

The company will contribute its expertise in supercomputing, storage and visualization technologies to enable NIMSAT to process, analyze and synthesize data and computational models for real-time disaster management support.

NIMSAT is researching state-of-the-art incident management procedures for profound improvements in the nation's technical ability to respond to and recover from catastrophic incidents. Additionally, it is developing tools that will provide simulations for training and technical support for the management of the disaster lifecycle. Elements in this cycle include prevention, preparation response and recovery.

Among its fundamental goals, NIMSAT cites efforts to enhance understanding of threats and vulnerabilities to the nation's critical infrastructure and to improve the resiliency of private sector supply chains which fuel the national economy.

"SGI's visualization technologies have been and will be instrumental in helping us develop research tools for simulations, training and decision support systems for strategic, tactical and operational support," said Dr. Ramesh Kolluru executive director for NIMSAT. "SGI's supercomputing technologies enable us to work with our colleagues in the B.I. Moody College of Business at the University of Louisiana to understand the implications of hazards to critical supply chains. These supercomputing assets help us engage in what-if scenario evaluation, which is very important when planning and responding to disasters."

A key element in the NIMSAT initiative is its relationship with the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) facility, one of the world's leading technology resources for industry, government and research. More than a year ago, LITE installed a 160-processor SGI(R) Altix(R) 4700 supercomputer featuring 4.1 terabytes of memory, which enables the facility to compute and visualize computationally complex disaster models, data and scenarios. In addition to its work with LITE, NIMSAT will have access to supercomputing systems at a number of other universities across the country via high speed optical networks such as LambdaRail (NLR).

"Large databases and real-time information feeds from a multitude of sources will be the core of such an operational center. The next challenge will be to present all these in a way that can support effective response and decision making. Technologies for visually fusing disparate data and media streams can be applied to address this challenge," said Dr. Eng-Lin Goh, chief technology officer and senior vice president of SGI. "By leveraging one of the world's largest shared-memory systems at LITE, NIMSAT will be able to deliver peta-scale database and geospatial information as well as multi-dimensional visualization for real-time data gathering, synthesis, analysis and dissemination."

"The tight integration of visualization, supercomputing and data management that we are able to accomplish here at LITE will help in enabling NIMSAT in developing tools for disaster management," said Dr. Carolina Cruz- Neira, executive director and chief scientist of LITE. "We believe this will play an essential role in empowering national, state and local incident managers."

For more information about NIMSAT, visit http://www.nimsat.org.

UL Lafayette

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is the second largest university in the state and is the largest of the eight institutions that comprise the University of Louisiana System. More than 16,000 students attend this public institution, which awards bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Curriculums are diverse with offerings from the humanities to scientific research. It's a national leader in areas like computer science, biology and nursing. UL Lafayette is on the global technology stage with its one-of-a-kind Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, which features several visualization environments and is supported by some of the most sophisticated supercomputers in the world. Its student-athletes -- Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns -- compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate competition. The campus is located in the heart of Acadiana -- a rich Cajun and Creole cultural area known for its extraordinary food, music, festivals and quality of life.

SGI

SGI (NASDAQ:SGIC) a leader in high-performance computing. SGI delivers a broad range of high-performance server, storage and visualization solutions along with industry-leading professional services and support that enable its customers to overcome the challenges of complex data-intensive workflows and accelerate breakthrough discoveries, innovation and information transformation. SGI helps customers solve significant challenges whether it's enhancing the quality of life through drug research, designing and manufacturing safer and more efficient cars and airplanes, studying global climate change, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or helping enterprises manage large data. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.,

For more information, call 256/773.2371 or visit http://www.sgi.com.