Cray Research Inc has beaten off competition from Fujitsu Ltd, Convex Computer Corp and IBM Corp to install one of its supercomputers at the National Meterological Institute in Madrid. The contract is valued at approximately $10.6m. Fujitsu came a close second in performance tests, offering value-added support, training and peripherals at a very competitive price; IBM managed to obtain only half Cray’s marks. Cray’s victory was put down to the fact that most European meteorological centres already use its supercomputers, so that sites would find it easier to exchange the software and information necessary for analysing meteorological data.
