[yellowdog-announce] Fixstars Provides GigaAccel 180 with Yellow Dog Linux: Press Release 16 September 2008

[Announce List for all Terra Soft products (moderated)]

GIGAACEL 180 PCIe CELL COMPUTER RUNS YDL

TOKYO, Japan - 16 September 2008 - Terra Soft Solutions of Loveland, Colorado, 
USA and Fixstars Corporation of Tokyo, Japan today announce a joint effort to 
bring enterprise level Linux support to Fixstars' IBM PowerXCell 8i 
Accelerator Board "GigaAccel™ 180".

Marketed by Fixstars, a pioneering company of Cell/B.E. solutions, GigaAccel 
180 is based upon the IBM PXCAB accelerator board with the latest Cell 
Broadband Engine™ microprocessor "IBM PowerXCell 8i". The astonishing 180 
GFLOPS single precision and 90 GFLOPS double precision performance by the 
Cell/B.E. chip is made readily available through integration with a PCIe 
based PC workstation. Where heavy arithmetic processing is required, as with 
financial modeling, computer diagnostic imaging, and video compression, the 
GigaAccel 180 is a low-cost, small footprint substitute for traditional, 
large scale clustered systems.

Satoshi Miki, Fixstars CEO states, "We are very confident with the Terra Soft 
product offering and support with their nearly ten years of experience and 
customer success. By our own validation, their Yellow Dog Linux product is 
the best solution available for the Cell chipset utilizing GigaAccel 180."

Paula Richards, IBM's Director of Cell Systems and Solutions states, "The 
Terra Soft Solutions offering provides an easy point of entry to high 
performance computing for the Fixstars GigaAccel 180 PCIe solution. Yellow 
Dog Linux operating system provides an effective delivery vehicle for the IBM 
Software Development Kit for Multicore Acceleration. Combining this with 
Fixstars' proven application expertise, will help customers quickly exploit 
the power of the platform and achieve tangible success."

The Fixstars' GigaAccel with Yellow Dog Linux offers:
 - One - 2.8 GHz IBM PowerXCell 8i processor
 - 4 GB PC2 DDR2 memory
 - 180 single-precision GFLOPS (peak)
 - 90 double-precision GFLOPS (peak)
 - Integrated dual 1 Gb Ethernet - Open IBM Cell SDK 

Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft Solutions states, "Fixstars historic experience 
with optimizing code for the Cell microprocessor is a perfect door opener 
into the provision of this integrated hardware and software solution,” said 
Kai Staats, CEO of Terra Soft Solutions. “The collaboration between our two 
teams will result in an unbeatable combination of engineering expertise for 
the operating system, application optimization, and delivery of turn-key 
systems built upon the GigaAccel 180."

Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) is a CentOS/RHEL based operating system built and 
maintained for ten years with 100% focus on the Power architecture. First to 
market with a commercial distribution for Cell, YDL is the only Linux OS to 
include the open portion of the IBM Cell SDK and install the runtime 
environment by default. Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux (YDEL) couples Terra 
Soft's operating system with engineering expertise and support through Value 
Added Reseller Fixstars, providing an exceptional end-user experience.

Fixstars will provide a license for “Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux for GigaAccel 
180” at 45,000 Yen per year, in Japan. To mark this announcement, Fixstars is 
holding a special campaign which offers the first year for free, for 
first-time GigaAccel 180 customers.


About Fixstars
Fixstars Corporation provides software technology solutions that target 
Cell/B.E. with a vision of the future where multi-core microprocessors are 
the standard. Fixstars provides total Cell/B.E. solutions from hardware 
acquisition, development environment set up, to software development, 
especially for financial, medical, and digital media industries.

For more information, visit www.fixstars.com


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
As the recognized leader in Linux for Power since 1999, Terra Soft provides 
Yellow Dog Linux board support for Power architecture chip vendors and OEMs; 
turn-key, integrated solutions built upon the PowerStation and systems from 
IBM, Mercury, and Sony; cross-architecture Linux applications for high 
performance computing, including Y-HPC Cluster Construction Suite and the 
Y-Film Asset Management System.

For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com


IBM, PXCAB, and Power Architecture are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the 
United States and/or other countries. YDL, Yellow Dog Linux, Y-HPC, and 
Y-Film are registered trademarks of Terra Soft Solutions. Linux is a 
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Additional product and company names 
mentioned may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective 
holders.