Quadrics' interconnect products are used primarily in Linux supercomputer clusters. Quadrics products run on RedHat(TM) and SuSE Linux(TM) releases as well as a number of vendor specific variants. Linux supercomputer clusters using Quadrics interconnects are used by DoE laboratories and other research institutions for advanced scientific research.

QS Technology gives Quadrics the benefits of a local presence in the United States. QS Technology is devoted to developing the U.S. market for Quadrics products and to supporting its customers and OEM associates. QS Technology will be working in close collaboration with the UK-based product development team. Quadrics and QS Technology provide both hardware and software support for the Quadrics interconnect products, as well as Linux maintenance and support services.

The agreement with QS Technology is part of the recently redesigned commercial partnership strategy developed by Quadrics in response to increasing demand for its high performance solutions around the world. The strategy involves a tiered network of commercial associates, worldwide system integrators, regional and local resellers. Regional resellers represent a key element of the program for its successful implementation.

"We want to be closer to our customers and to explain the benefits they can get by implementing a Quadrics solution. QS Technology offered us the speed, Linux expertise and entrepreneurial spirit we were looking for in this challenging market," commented Cristoforo Romanelli, CEO of Quadrics.

QS Technology technical staff will enable Quadrics to provide "round-the-clock" support to its U.S. customer base and support the growing network of system integrators in design, installation and support of Quadrics cluster solutions. The company's main office is located in San Jose, Calif., and it has established a business development office in McLean, Va., in the heart of the Washington, D.C. metro area.

"It's clear from the selection and implementation of Quadrics' interconnects as part of the world's 2nd fastest supercomputer, 'Thunder,' at Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the world's 3rd fastest supercomputer, ASCI Q, at Los Alamos National Lab that Quadrics is the leader in supercomputer interconnects. Quadrics now brings that expertise and performance, combined with new aggressive pricing, to the enterprise and departmental computing market with its E-Series. QS Technology can now deliver this superior level of performance, economy, and support to new and existing customers here in the U.S.," added Michael Duffy, CEO of QS Technology.

"Numerous studies have shown that commodity clustering is the most cost effective and efficient solution for the HPC market and Quadrics offers the highest performance product in this market. Moreover, the new Quadrics E-Series products offer significant pricing advantages, and we intend to market Quadrics products aggressively to the larger commercial and government enterprise computing markets," stated Chris Roberts, VP for Business Development of QS Technology.

About Quadrics

Quadrics (www.quadrics.com) is a leading supplier and developer of high performance networking products and software for massively parallel systems. Quadrics has its HQ in the UK and local presence in the U.S. and Italy. Quadrics Ltd. is fully owned by Alenia Aeronautica, one of Europe's leading corporations and part of the Finmeccanica Group (www.finmeccanica.com).

The world's leading vendors and system integrators as well as major supercomputing centers such as Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory have selected Quadrics.

About QS Technology

QS Technology (www.qstechnology.com) has offices in McLean, Va., and San Jose, Calif. The company headquarters is in San Jose, Calif., located at 2290 North First Street. QS Technology has the latest Quadrics QsNetII products working in HPC commodity clusters for customer demonstrations, qualification testing and benchmarking. HPC users interested in learning more about Quadrics products should contact Michael Duffy at mduffy@qstechnology.com or Chris Roberts at croberts@qstechnology.com.

About Alenia Aeronautica

Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, is a European leader in aeronautics and a trusted partner to the world's leading aerospace companies. Headquartered in Rome, Alenia develops and integrates innovative military and civil aeronautical systems, from design and production to maintenance. Its activities are comprised of combat aircraft, military transport aircraft, mission systems, commercial aircraft (regional and aerostructures), modification and overhaul. In 2003, Alenia reported a value of production of 1,188 million Euro, a backlog of 3,898 million Euro and orders of 1,373 million Euro. The total workforce is 8,680.

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