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Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc reported that its Cray XD1 Opteron/Linux-based supercomputer has been chosen by Design News for a Best Products of the Year Award in the category of hardware. The Best Product award is given to the most innovative and ground-breaking products. The Cray XD1 supercomputer was chosen for its exceptional application performance, ease-of-use and management. The Cray XD1 supercomputer combines breakthrough interconnect, management and reconfigurable computing technologies for exceptional performance, reliability and usability. Designed for demanding high performance computing (HPC) applications, such as computer-aided engineering (CAE) software used in automotive, aeronautic and other manufacturing fields, the Cray XD1 system enables design engineers to simulate and analyze faster, solve more complex problems, and bring safer products to market sooner. Linux x86-based, 32 and 64-bit compatible, the Cray XD1 runs a broad range of HPC software. As engineering problems get larger and more complex, interprocessor communication becomes a real bottleneck. The Cray XD1 system's very high throughput/low latency interconnect and other scalability features allow users to apply larger numbers of processors to engineering problems. This allows designers to increase model complexity and simulation accuracy, while decreasing design time. Sophisticated management features simplify system administration and maintain high system availability. The Cray XD1 supercomputer has recorded leading performance results with the popular LS-DYNA CAE code from Livermore Software Technology Corp. and in industry HPC Challenge benchmark tests designed to assess real-world performance in several key aspects of supercomputing. About Design News Best Products of the Year Award 2005 Design News Best Products of the Year Award recognizes innovative products that advance the state of the art in design engineering. Finalists are determined based on the ability of the product to solve design challenges by a panel of judges. Winners are selected by readers who are asked to vote for the product that would most significantly impact design engineers in each of 19 categories. Winners were announced in the March 7 issue of Design News.