1. Who is eligible: Residents of the United States, at least 21 years of age, who purchase a Microway cluster of at least 16 nodes and take delivery between 9/1/02 and 8/31/03. Individuals, including those who work at universities, private labs, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are eligible, except employees and their immediate families of federal, state or local government agencies, Microway, Inc., its suppliers, and To Market To Market, an independent judging agency. Sponsor of this contest is Microway, Inc., 12 Richards Road, Plymouth, MA 02360.

2. What you can win: A research grant for the purchase of your choice of any combination of the following Microway products and/or services valued at a total of up to $50,000: (a) a new cluster or additional nodes, (b) workstations, or (c) other computer equipment and/or software available from Microway at the time of the award. Value is based on retail pricing in effect at time of award.

3. How to enter: At least 3 months, but no more than 6 months after taking delivery of your new Microway cluster, you must submit and judges must receive an application meeting the criteria described in rule 4, below. You may submit your entry via mail to Microway 20th Anniversary Cluster Contest, 12 Richards Road, Plymouth, MA 02360, or via email at 20thyearclustercontestentry@microway.com. Entrant must be the purchaser of the cluster, and only one entry may be submitted per cluster purchase. Entries received later than 6 months after the date on which you took delivery of your Microway cluster are ineligible and will not be judged. All entries become the sole property of Sponsor and will not be returned.

4. Judging criteria: Entries must be 500 words or less and must include (a) your full name and date of birth, (b) your complete daytime address with zip code, your email address and day and nighttime phone numbers, (c) your position within your organization, if applicable, (d) the name of your organization, including department or division, if applicable, (e) the title of your project, if any, (f) your objectives and strategies to achieve them, (g) the benefits to your organization, community, industry, nation and/or world that will accrue from your project, (h) how your Microway cluster is helping you reach your objective, (i) why you chose Microway and (j) the particular features of the cluster that are most important to your project. Entries must be the original work of the applicant, though you may use material that is published, as long as the source is footnoted. You will not be penalized for grammatical, punctuation or spelling errors. Your submission must accurately represent your computer application. (Winners will be asked to sign an affidavit attesting to such accuracy.)

5. How winners are selected and how many prizes are awarded: After all entries are received, judges will review them and select winner(s) based on (a) how well each entry addresses the criteria in rule 4, above (30%), (b) how well the overall case is presented (40%), and (c) how interesting the application may be to the readers of scientific and computing magazines (30%). Each 150 eligible entries received, or portion thereof, will result in the award of a prize: if 151 eligible entries are received, 2 prizes will be awarded; if 301 eligible entries are received, 3 prizes will be awarded, etc. At least one prize is guaranteed to be awarded. Winning depends solely on the merits of your submission. Individual entrants and organizations may win only one prize. Judges will select winner(s) within 60 days of the last eligible date of receipt of entries (3/1/04). Winners will be notified by mail, email and/or phone.

6. Winner contact, waivers, affidavits: If a winner is unreachable, does not contact judges or does not complete and return affidavits of eligibility and release within 30 days of first attempt of notification, or if a winner fails to specify prize merchandise and/or services they desire within 90 days, the prize in its totality will be forfeited and an alternate winner will be selected. No cash substitution for prizes will be permitted. Prizes are non-transferable. All entrants agree to the use of their submission (or any edited parts thereof), name, address and likeness in Microway's advertising or public relations in any media (including online) without further compensation.

7. Decisions of judges are final, and contestants agree to abide by them and all of these Official Rules as a condition of entry. Judges may disqualify entries for lewdness, inappropriateness or any other reason.

8. Internet rules: No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, or illegible entries, mail or email; for any computer, telephone, satellite, cable, network, electronic or internet hardware or software malfunctions, failures or connections; for garbled, corrupt or jumbled transmissions, or service provider/ internet/website accessibility, availability, or traffic congestion; or any technical error or unauthorized human intervention, or the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry or other information, or the failure to capture any such information, whether caused by website users, tampering, hacking, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest. Sponsor is not responsible for injury or damage to participants' or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading materials from or use of the website.

If the Contest is not capable of running as planned by reason of, but not limited to, infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which Sponsor, in its sole opinion, deems could corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and select the winners from entries received prior to the action or as it otherwise deems fair and equitable. In no event will Sponsor, its affiliates, parents, subsidiaries and related companies, their advertising, promotion, or judging agencies or their respective officers, directors, employees, representatives and agents, be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages arising out of your access to, use of, or downloading from and/or printing material downloaded from the domain http://www.microway.com.

Without limiting the foregoing, everything on these sites is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. (Some jurisdictions may not allow the limitations or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages or exclusion of implied warranties so some of the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you. Check your local laws for any restrictions or limitations regarding these limitations or exclusions.)

Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or website, to be acting in violation of the Official Rules; or to be acting in a non-sportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person. Any use of robotic, automatic, macro, programmed or like entry methods will void all such entries by such methods, and disqualify any entrant using such methods. Any entrant who attempts to participate with multiple email and/or addresses under multiple identities or uses any device or artifice to enter multiple times will be disqualified. In case of dispute, entries will be declared made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry. "Authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted entry.

9. Misc.: Except where prohibited, entrants agree that: (a) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, or any prizes awarded, or the determination of winners shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by arbitration pursuant to the Rules of the American Arbitration Association, then effective; (b) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Contest but in no event attorneys' fees; and (c) entrants hereby waive all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages beyond actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of entrant and/or Sponsor in connection with this Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Massachusetts, without regard for conflicts of law doctrine of any jurisdiction, and all proceedings shall take place in the City and County of Plymouth.

This promotion is void where prohibited or restricted by law. All federal, state and local statutes apply. Any federal, state and local taxes that may be assessed on prize grants are the sole responsibility of the winners. Winners' names will be posted at microway.com/contest_rules.html within 30 days of verification.