Subject: Unichem Release Text

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 16:07:50 cst

I've attached a short release on UniChem, a new software environment
on computational chemistry announced today by Cray Research.  Please
email me or call me at 612-683-3679 if you have any questions about
the product.

Steve Schewe

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TO: SCHEWE_STEVE/MEND1_00@a00309

.......................................................................

 media:  Kate Neessen / financial:  Laura Merriam

CRAY RESEARCH INTRODUCES SOFTWARE TO ADVANCE CHEMISTRY R&D
Links supercomputer power with workstation convenience

Minneapolis, February 6, 1991 --  Cray Research, Inc. today announced
UniChem, an easy-to-use, integrated software environment that increases
productivity and reduces development costs for the chemistry industry.
UniChem software links the power and networking capabilities of Cray
Research supercomputers with the convenience and visualization
capabilities of the Silicon Graphics IRIS/4D workstation family.  It
enables researchers to explore complex chemical systems at a new level
of detail from their desktops.

"UniChem is a first for the supercomputer industry," said John
Rollwagen, chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Research.  "An
innovative application-based project of this scope has not been
attempted by any other supercomputer vendor."

To develop UniChem, Cray Research worked closely with researchers from
major chemical and pharmaceutical companies, including DuPont, Eli Lilly
and Company, Exxon Research and Engineering, 3M, and Monsanto Company
and its subsidiaries G. D. Searle, Nutra Sweet, and Monsanto
Agriculture.  "The result is a software environment developed and tested
by chemists for use by chemists," added Rollwagen.

"Modern chemical simulations on supercomputers can generate enormous
amounts of data," said David Dixon, a scientist at DuPont.  "The methods
to analyze data adequately with visualization techniques on modern
workstations have not been available, and UniChem addresses this
situation."  He added, "UniChem makes it significantly easier to run
complex jobs in a networked supercomputer environment and those features
will increase productivity and help to make supercomputing technology
more widely available."

"Chemical and pharmaceutical R&D is expensive and time consuming," said
Erich Wimmer, technical director of Cray Research's chemistry group.
"For example, bringing a new drug to the market can cost more than $100
million and take more than 10 years.  With UniChem's accurate computer
simulations, chemists can recognize promising ideas sooner and eliminate
unproductive projects earlier in the research and development cycle."
He added, "This translates into cost savings, higher effectiveness of
the entire R&D organization, and leads to better products that can be
brought to market sooner."

With UniChem, researchers can model complex molecular systems such as
drug molecules, proteins, agrochemicals, polymers, catalysts, and
advanced materials in the chemistry, petroleum, automotive, electronics,
and aerospace industries.  This first release of UniChem concentrates on
molecular quantum mechanical calculations, which are the basis of all
detailed simulations in molecular and materials sciences.  The UniChem
software environment consists of two main components:

* an integrated series of high-performance molecular quantum mechanics
programs that yield different levels of chemical accuracy and are based
on semi-empirical, density functional, and ab initio methods

* and a sophisticated direct-manipulation graphical user interface.

UniChem distributes work to the most appropriate level of computing.
The Cray Research supercomputer solves the complex equations of quantum
mechanics, while the IRIS workstation manages the user interface.  This
interface enables users to build or import molecular structures, choose
a computational method, select computational parameters, control
computations, and visualize computed results.  Results are visualized in
the same framework and style for each application program.

"A critical need exists for standards in computational chemistry
software," said Riaz Abdulla, manager of supercomputer applications and
molecular design at Eli Lilly and Company, a UniChem consortium member.
"Our goal is to integrate all of the available functionality on
distributed platforms through a common interface.  In this manner
researchers can access centralized processes resident on our CRAY-2
supercomputer in a transparent manner.  UniChem admirably fits into this
strategy."

UniChem will run on any Cray Research computer system running the UNICOS
operating system release 5.1 or later.  UNICOS is based on UNIX System V
of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.

UniChem will be available for purchase in April 1991.

For more information on Unichem, contact:

          Steve Schewe
          Cray Research, Inc.
          655E Lone Oak Drive
          Eagan, MN  55121
          (612)683-3679
          [email-masked]

Cray Research, Inc., designs, manufactures, markets, and supports large-
scale, high-performance computer systems for scientific and engineering
applications.

###

IRIS is a registered trademark.  IRIS/4D is a  trademark of Silicon
Graphics, Inc.
UNIX is a trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.

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