The new Cray CS300 324-node system, dubbed Catalyst, will be bestowed with its inaugural applications sometime in December. Delivered in October, the 150 teraflop cluster sports some notable specs, which LLNL and Intel have commented on in detail below One thing that might pop out immediately about these configuration details is that some unique choices have been made in the name of enhancing I/O and overall system balance. The 12-core processor choice, the use of QDR-80, and NVRAM all point to some serious thought about balancing architecture to the requirements of emerging classes of “big data” applications. To read further, please visit http://archive.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-11-04/llnl_seeks_big_data_system_balance_with_catalyst.html?featured=top&goback=.gde_4178444_member_5803184029423386625#