Tera Computer Co, The Seattle-based supercomputer maker, has reported a first-quarter net loss of $6.8m on revenue of $661,000, compared to a loss of $5.1m on revenue of $21,000 in the year-ago period. Results for the quarter included about $1.5m in one-time costs related to adjustments in inventory valuation and reserves due to engineering design changes and a $286,000 charge related to interest expense from a private placement of notes and warrants. Without these items, the loss per share would have amounted to $0.37, still $0.07 worse than analysts expected.
Largely all of the $661,000 in revenue for the quarter came from the sale of two additional processors to the San Diego Supercomputer Center in January, as it upgraded the Tera MTA system at SDSC to four processors. Research and development costs, by contrast, were $4.1m in the quarter and marketing and sales costs amounted to $632,000. Making matters worse, Tera began incurring manufacturing costs outside of R&D, which the company says reflect its progress towards production readiness. These costs amounted to $1.4m and include the expense of the manufacturing group as well as production expenses not directly related to the system delivered to San Diego.
