Dell cluster deployed at the University of Utah

DELL HIGH-PERFORMANCE CLUSTERS AID THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH IN RESEARCHING
WAYS TO PREVENT ACCIDENTAL FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

New Study Shows Dell Leads Industry in Technical Cluster Deployments in
First Half of 2002

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 23, 2002 - Researchers at The University of Utah are
using a Dell high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) to research and help
prevent accidental fires and explosions.

The university's Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and
Explosions (C-SAFE) will use the cluster to provide government and
corporations with insights into the safety of storing and handling chemicals
and hazardous materials.  C-SAFE is a program created by the Department of
Energy's (DOE) Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) to
integrate large, complex computer models for solving the nation's critical
scientific and engineering problems.

According to new research by industry analyst firm International Data Corp.,
deployments like those at the University of Utah add to the growing number
of organizations buying standards-based supercomputing clusters from Dell.
The firm recently recognized Dell as the leading provider of Intel-based
Linux technical clusters in the first and second quarters of 2002 with
approximately 40 percent of the worldwide market. (1)

"Before we deployed the Dell HPCC solution we executed almost all of our
simulations on proprietary supercomputers, primarily those provided by the
DOE ASCI program," said Steve Parker, research assistant professor, The
University of Utah.  "The price and performance of the Dell cluster enables
us to bring more of our research onsite for development before performing
even larger simulations on the ASCI framework."

Russ Holt, vice president and general manager of Dell's Enterprise Systems
Group, said the tens of thousands of systems that Dell has deployed to date
is evidence of the steady growth in the use of high-performance clusters to
replace traditional supercomputers.  "Accidental fire and explosion
prevention is yet another example of beneficial research that can be
accomplished through Dell HPCC solutions," he said.

The cluster consists of 128 Dell PowerEdge 2650 servers with dual Intel Xeon
processors running Red Hat Linux.  The University of Utah will use the
PowerEdge servers to process up to nine terabytes of data involved in a
range of accident scenarios, such as those resulting from jet-fuel fire
after an airplane crash or the ignition of chemicals in a containment
building.

For more information about Dell's HPCC program, please visit:
www.dell.com/hpcc

For more information about the C-SAFE program at the University of Utah,
please visit: www.csafe.utah.edu

About Dell
Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq: DELL) is a premier provider of products
and services required for customers worldwide to build their
information-technology and Internet infrastructures. The company's revenue
for the past four quarters totaled $32.1 billion. Dell, through its direct
business model, designs, manufactures and customizes products and services
to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and
peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained at
www.dell.com.
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Dell and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Computer Corporation.
Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

(1) According to IDC's Worldwide MidRange and High Performance Server
Overview report, the Intel/Linux technical cluster market reached $86
million in Q102 and $116 million in Q202.