The IT Challenge and HPC Technology Trends
While clusters have revolutionized High Performance Computing, the standardization of operating systems has also made an impact. Linux and Windows have seen worldwide growth. Ethernet will continue to grow along with the size of the cluster market, but InfiniBand will grow at the expense of the other high-end proprietary interconnects. In addition, system management concerns are growing because the datacenter has not only more systems, but clusters of systems, introducing a new category of underlying problems, including load balancing and hot-swap systems.

Using Technology to address today's IT Challenges
Appro is uniquely positioned to support High-Performance Computing Markets. Since 1991, Appro has created innovative server design to customers, as well as Appro branded products and clusters. Appro provides technology leadership by being among the first to market leveraging commodity parts with new technologies offering our customers a performance edge over their competitors. Our sytems and cluster solutions are designed to work with existing IT environments. Appro’s performance history include large HPC installations to both Government and Enterprise customers.

Appro Advantages
**Differentiated performance with a balanced architecture
Appro designs and manufactures its own products and provides integration services for large cluster environments. Appro offers manageability, flexibility, and choice for customers to select high value products and solutions that meet their requirements at attractive price/performance. Appro delivers balanced hardware architecture that reduces bandwidth and bottlenecks to ensure performance optimization. Appro is focused on making sure that the managed solution delivers the processing, memory, and networking performance needed to accomplish the task quickly, reliably, and affordably. This provides a tremendous amount of added value for customers looking to accelerate their business results from an optmized infrastructure.

**Open Standards
Appro delivers innovative servers designed to work with existing IT environments. Appro's products are industry standards compliant, featuring multiple high performance network connectivity solutions, multiple I/O and disc options, with the choice of AMD or Intel® processors.

**Engineering Expertise
Appro has deep engineering resources that design hardware solutions based upon customer’s requirements. Appro experience and expertise enable the company to design industry leading products and management solutions that unlock the power of IT.

**System Management
Appro Cluster Engine Software Management is built up in a carefully layered architecture offering a complete lights-out management system based on IPMI standards. It supports multiple Interconnect Topologies to achieve maximum reliability, performance, and high availability.

Technology Partners
Together, Appro and its partners create end-to-end industry-leading solutions for our customers. Our partnership model gives us the ability to be flexible and respond to your specific needs, regardless of whether you are a global enterprise or small business. Our partner relationships help us create out-of-the-box, innovative solutions for end-users who need to achieve high performance, scalability, and reliability at a competitive cost. Appro’s partners include AMD, Intel, Mellanox, Microsoft, Novel, and more.

Select Customer List:
Magma EDA, ChevronTexaco, Sandia National Laboratories, Penn State University, Raytheon, Advance Micro Devices, Rice University, Connoco, Paradigm Geophysical, ING Renault Formula 1 Team, University of Tsukuba, Gear6 Solutions.

Corporate Snapshot:

• Appro was incorporated in 1991
• Headquarters in Milpitas, CA
• Regional Office in Houston, TX
• Global Presence via International Resellers
• Manufacturing and R&D subsidiary in Asia

Headquarters
Appro International, Inc.
446 South Abbott Avenue
Milpitas, CA 95035
Tel: (408)941-8100
Fax: (408)941-8111
www.appro.com