Cray Inc. announced that it has received an order for a Cray XD1 supercomputer from Germany's renowned Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). Financial details were not disclosed. ZIB will use the Cray XD1 system primarily for computational chemistry applications. ZIB will also exploit the system's unique field programmable gate array (FPGA) capabilities to advance the use of reconfigurable computing to accelerate life sciences applications. "We are expanding our long-term relationship with Cray because we are excited about the Cray XD1 supercomputer's combination of exceptional performance and new innovative features," said Alexander Reinefeld, head of Computer Science. "This system has strong potential for advancing the work of some of our most demanding users." "We are excited to deepen our partnership again with ZIB, one of the leading institutions for scientific computing. The Cray XD1 platform is purpose- built to meet HPC challenges and is an attractive alternative to clusters assembled from general-purpose business servers," said Ulla Thiel, vice president of Cray Europe. "Customers in many disciplines around the world are now turning to Cray for this high performance solution."