Tokyo, November 9, 2006 --- NEC Corporation
today announced that Project Leader at the Next Generation
Supercomputer R & D Center, RIKEN, Dr. Tadashi Watanabe
(previous employee and Vice President at NEC Corporation), will be
honored with the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award from the
IEEE Computer Society. Dr.. Watanabe will be the first Japanese
individual to receive this award. The award ceremony is to take
place on November 15 during the Supercomputing 2006 conference that
is being held from November 11 to 17 in Tampa, Florida, U.S.A.
The Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award
was established in 1997 and is given to individuals whose
innovative contributions to high performance computing systems best
exemplify the creative spirit demonstrated by Seymour Cray,
inventor of the vector supercomputer concept and developer of
several successful supercomputers.
Dr. Tadashi Watanabe joined NEC Corporation in
1968 and was engaged in the development of large-scale computers
until December, 2005, when he left NEC for his new appointment. In
particular, it is worth noting that he was the chief designer of
SX-2, the first supercomputer introduced by NEC in 1983, which
boasted the world's fastest speed at the time. Dr. Watanabe already
received the IEEE Eckert-Mauchly award from the IEEE Computer
Society and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) for his
contribution to the NEC SX Series in 1998.
Furthermore, Dr. Watanabe played a central
role in the successive development of the SX Series and "the Earth
Simulator". The Earth Simulator was certified as the world's
fastest supercomputer for three years running from 2002 to 2004.
NEC's SX Series and the Earth Simulator both employ the vector
principle that was invented by Seymour Cray.
Previous recipients of the Seymour Cray Award
include John Cocke of IBM Corporation, Steve Scott of Cray Inc. and
Burton J. Smith of Microsoft Corporation.
NEC believes that this award honors Dr.
Watanabe through global recognition of his high technological
capabilities and NEC's vector supercomputing technology. As a
world-leading vendor, NEC will continue to target provision of the
best computer solutions through the development of
leading-edge technology and products of several successful
supercomputers.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation
(NASDAQ: NIPNY) is one of the world's leading providers of
Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions
dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and
global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the
key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by
integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by
providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics
Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people
worldwide and had net sales of approximately 4,825 billion yen
(approx. $41.2 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2006.
For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at:
www.nec.com
* Newsroom: http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/