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Benchmark Electronics, Inc. , a leading contract manufacturing provider, announced today that, through a joint effort with Cray Inc. , it helped support Cray in its efforts to deliver a supercomputer system for Oak Ridge National Laboratory which set a new world record for computer speed. The Cray system sustained performance of over a petaflop (a quadrillion mathematical calculations per second) on two scientific applications.

Nicknamed "Jaguar," the new Oak Ridge system uses over 45,000 of the latest Quad-Core AMD Opteron(TM) processors and features 362 terabytes of memory and a 10-petabye DDN file system. The computer has a memory bandwidth of 578 terabytes per second and an I/O bandwidth of 284 gigabytes per second. The new petaflops machine will make it possible to address some of the most challenging scientific problems in areas such as climate modeling, renewable energy, materials science, fusion and combustion.

Benchmark Electronics contributed to Cray's success by providing new product introduction services, printed circuit board assembly, and functional test. Benchmark's manufacturing teams worked closely with Cray during the third quarter of 2008 and delivered PCBA's to an aggressive schedule. In late 2008, Cray received an official notice of acceptance of the Jaguar supercomputer.

Benchmark Electronics, Inc. provides electronics manufacturing, design and engineering services to original equipment manufacturers of computers and related products for business enterprises, medical devices, industrial control equipment, testing and instrumentation products, and telecommunication equipment. Benchmark's global operations include 20 facilities in ten countries. Benchmark's Common Shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BHE.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: james.walker@bench.com

SOURCE: Benchmark Electronics, Inc.