SAIC Upgrades FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System With
SGI Origin Technology

SGI 2000 Series Servers Power Congressionally Mandated System; SGI Origin
3000

Systems to Follow

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ — SGI (NYSE: <a
HREF=”aol://4785:SGI”>SGI) today announced that Science Applications
International Corp. (SAIC) has installed two SGI(TM) 2000 series servers to
power the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS),
which helps prevent the transfer of handguns and long guns from licensed gun
dealers to felons and other individuals prohibited by law.

NICS, used by more than 60,000 federally licensed firearms dealers nationwide
to screen prospective purchasers, was developed by SAIC for the FBI’s
Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, W.V. In 1993,
congress mandated the creation of NICS under the Brady Handgun Violence
Prevention Act to implement instant background checks on those trying to buy
handguns and long guns. The system reviews criminal records and other
prohibiting data to determine whether federally licensed firearms dealers can
legally transfer a gun to a prospective purchaser.

Two eight-processor SGI 2000 series servers, which act as backups to each
other, manage the NICS central database of noncriminal federal prohibiting
records and tap into two FBI databases — the National Crime Information
Center and the Interstate Identification Index — to identify people
prohibited from buying firearms. Besides those with criminal convictions,
NICS helps disqualify prospective purchasers who have received dishonorable
discharges from the armed forces, have been committed to mental institutions,
are illegal aliens or have renounced their U.S. citizenship.

“The FBI selected an SGI Origin family solution based on performance and
expandability as well as prior experience in working with SGI. The SGI Origin
family solution provides NICS with the speed, capacity, reliability and
expandability to support its current needs and future needs as we know them
today,” said Elizabeth Harsch, NICS program manager for SAIC.

NICS first went online in November 1998 and routinely handles tens of
thousands of gun applications per day that require information on a
purchaser’s background. Although each background check searches several
databases with tens of millions of criminal records on file, NICS responds in
well under 30 seconds on most inquiries from federally licensed firearms
sellers.

The two new SGI 2000 series servers replace an eight-processor SGI(TM)
Challenge(R) server that used to power NICS. In addition, two 16-processor
SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 3000 series systems will be installed this summer as part
of the FBI’s upgrade strategy for NICS. The FBI recently upgraded NICS from
an Oracle7(TM) to an Oracle8(TM) database.

The SGI Origin server family is used for high-performance, computationally
intensive applications in business, government and the scientific and
technical communities. Use of SGI(TM) systems running MIPS(R) processors,
combined with its IRIX(R) operating system and SGI(TM) NUMA architecture in a
64-bit scalable server environment, allows the SGI Origin family to scale to
thousands of processors, providing the opportunity to seamlessly grow as
customer requirements demand.

NICS runs on the SGI IRIX 6.5 operating system, a fifth-generation UNIX(R)
operating system and one of the most important and mature UNIX operating
system releases in the industry. IRIX 6.5 is characterized by a rich set of
scalability, big data management, real-time 3D visualization enhancements and
middleware features, along with an improved release process for increased
robustness and stability for broader server and workstation deployment.

About SAIC

SAIC, based in San Diego, Calif., is a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s
largest employee-owned research and engineering firm. The company provides
information technology, systems development/integration and e-business
products and services to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers
and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in
telecommunications, national security, law enforcement, health care,
transportation, energy, the environment and financial services.

About SGI

SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced
graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their
toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with
offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com.

NOTE: Challenge and IRIX are registered trademarks, and SGI, the SGI logo
and Origin are trademarks, of Silicon Graphics, Inc. MIPS is a registered
trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc., used under license by Silicon Graphics,
Inc. Oracle7 and Oracle8 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation. UNIX is a
registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed
exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. All other trademarks mentioned
herein are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Gregory Slabodkin of SGI, 301-595-2618, or [email protected]

SOURCE SGI

CO: SGI; Science Applications International Corp.

ST: California, West Virginia

IN: CPR MLM

SU: CON

01/30/2001 06:00 EST http://www.prnewswire.comSAIC Upgrades FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System With
SGI Origin Technology

SGI 2000 Series Servers Power Congressionally Mandated System; SGI Origin
3000

Systems to Follow

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ — SGI (NYSE: <a
HREF=”aol://4785:SGI”>SGI) today announced that Science Applications
International Corp. (SAIC) has installed two SGI(TM) 2000 series servers to
power the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS),
which helps prevent the transfer of handguns and long guns from licensed gun
dealers to felons and other individuals prohibited by law.

NICS, used by more than 60,000 federally licensed firearms dealers nationwide
to screen prospective purchasers, was developed by SAIC for the FBI’s
Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, W.V. In 1993,
congress mandated the creation of NICS under the Brady Handgun Violence
Prevention Act to implement instant background checks on those trying to buy
handguns and long guns. The system reviews criminal records and other
prohibiting data to determine whether federally licensed firearms dealers can
legally transfer a gun to a prospective purchaser.

Two eight-processor SGI 2000 series servers, which act as backups to each
other, manage the NICS central database of noncriminal federal prohibiting
records and tap into two FBI databases — the National Crime Information
Center and the Interstate Identification Index — to identify people
prohibited from buying firearms. Besides those with criminal convictions,
NICS helps disqualify prospective purchasers who have received dishonorable
discharges from the armed forces, have been committed to mental institutions,
are illegal aliens or have renounced their U.S. citizenship.

“The FBI selected an SGI Origin family solution based on performance and
expandability as well as prior experience in working with SGI. The SGI Origin
family solution provides NICS with the speed, capacity, reliability and
expandability to support its current needs and future needs as we know them
today,” said Elizabeth Harsch, NICS program manager for SAIC.

NICS first went online in November 1998 and routinely handles tens of
thousands of gun applications per day that require information on a
purchaser’s background. Although each background check searches several
databases with tens of millions of criminal records on file, NICS responds in
well under 30 seconds on most inquiries from federally licensed firearms
sellers.

The two new SGI 2000 series servers replace an eight-processor SGI(TM)
Challenge(R) server that used to power NICS. In addition, two 16-processor
SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 3000 series systems will be installed this summer as part
of the FBI’s upgrade strategy for NICS. The FBI recently upgraded NICS from
an Oracle7(TM) to an Oracle8(TM) database.

The SGI Origin server family is used for high-performance, computationally
intensive applications in business, government and the scientific and
technical communities. Use of SGI(TM) systems running MIPS(R) processors,
combined with its IRIX(R) operating system and SGI(TM) NUMA architecture in a
64-bit scalable server environment, allows the SGI Origin family to scale to
thousands of processors, providing the opportunity to seamlessly grow as
customer requirements demand.

NICS runs on the SGI IRIX 6.5 operating system, a fifth-generation UNIX(R)
operating system and one of the most important and mature UNIX operating
system releases in the industry. IRIX 6.5 is characterized by a rich set of
scalability, big data management, real-time 3D visualization enhancements and
middleware features, along with an improved release process for increased
robustness and stability for broader server and workstation deployment.

About SAIC

SAIC, based in San Diego, Calif., is a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s
largest employee-owned research and engineering firm. The company provides
information technology, systems development/integration and e-business
products and services to commercial and government customers. SAIC engineers
and scientists work to solve complex technical problems in
telecommunications, national security, law enforcement, health care,
transportation, energy, the environment and financial services.

About SGI

SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced
graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their
toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with
offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com.

NOTE: Challenge and IRIX are registered trademarks, and SGI, the SGI logo
and Origin are trademarks, of Silicon Graphics, Inc. MIPS is a registered
trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc., used under license by Silicon Graphics,
Inc. Oracle7 and Oracle8 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation. UNIX is a
registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed
exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. All other trademarks mentioned
herein are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Gregory Slabodkin of SGI, 301-595-2618, or [email protected]

SOURCE SGI

CO: SGI; Science Applications International Corp.

ST: California, West Virginia

IN: CPR MLM

SU: CON

01/30/2001 06:00 EST http://www.prnewswire.com