Intel Corporation and Cray have today announced signing a multi-year agreement to advance high-performance computing (HPC) on Intel microprocessors while delivering broad new Intel and Cray technologies in future Cray server systems. The two companies plan to explore future supercomputer component designs such as multi-core processing and advanced interconnects. As a result of this collaboration, Cray and Intel plan to develop a range of HPC systems and technologies over the next several years.

Peter Ungaro, president and chief executive officer of Cray, said, "We're excited at the potential of bringing together Intel's powerful silicon expertise and Cray's industry leadership in scalable HPC systems. This collaboration provides the HPC market segment with access to the best microprocessors the industry has to offer at any point in time, in the most advanced supercomputers in the world."

Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager (Digital Enterprise Group) of Intel, said, "Cray's commitment to Intel is a testament of our commitment to HPC, and the strength of our hardware and software roadmap and many-core research. The combination of this industry leadership and technical strength will allow HPC users to take advantage of future Xeon and other Intel processor technologies."

There's no official word yet but the Intel-Cray supercomputers are expected to be unveiled by 2010-11 and may run with post-Nehalem processors as well as Larrabee floating-point accelerators.

Meanwhile, Cray has to its credit two of the world's top 10 supercomputers. Interestingly, the company is also already in partnership with Intel's arch rival AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), and will continue using AMD processors in the machines it sells.