Audi Joins Worldwide Automotive Leaders Choosing Exa Powerflow on Sun Servers
15 November 1999
Audi Joins Worldwide Automotive Leaders Choosing Exa Powerflow on Sun Servers
LEXINGTON, Mass., Nov. 15 -- Exa(R) Corporation, manufacturer
of PowerFLOW(R) software for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), announces
that Audi AG, Germany has chosen to increase its PowerFLOW license usage by
800% and dedicate a new Sun Microsystems 32-processor
Enterprise(TM) 10000 server, popularly known as the Starfire(TM) server,
exclusively to external aerodynamic analysis of future Audi automotive
designs.
Audi joins a host of worldwide automotive leaders, including Ford Motor
Company, BMW AG and Daimler-Chrysler, that look to PowerFLOW as a
computational fluid dynamic simulation solution. "We are quite pleased with
the combined performance of our PowerFLOW software and Sun system," states
Norbert Lindener, Audi AG Manager of Aerodynamics, Wind Tunnel Center. "At
Audi, we are continuously expanding our uses of CFD to design the best
automobiles possible. Today we perform detailed, compute-intensive
aerodynamic simulations using PowerFLOW that would have previously taken weeks
to set up. Our 32-processor Sun is consistently loaded, running extremely
complex simulations like automobile underbodies -- all to make the most
efficient vehicles possible," continues Lindener.
As the automotive consumer continues to demand better fuel economy,
wind-noise reduction and superior handling, cutting-edge manufacturers like
Audi respond by constantly evaluating and improving designs. "Because
PowerFLOW simulations can be completed using a fraction of the engineer's time
that competitive codes require, development teams like those at Audi are
turning to Exa PowerFLOW for their ever-increasing fluid flow analysis needs,"
comments Stephen Remondi, Exa Corporation president. "PowerFLOW's speed on
Sun high-performance servers is outstanding -- it's a winning combination that
simply brings customers results in time to make a design impact."
"The Exa/Sun installation at Audi represents the continued acceptance of
Sun's HPC platforms in the automotive engineering industry," explains
Dr. Siamak H. Zadeh, Group Marketing Manager of HPC at Sun Microsystems.
"Computer-aided engineering is by nature compute-intensive and the
price/performance superiority of Sun's Starfire platforms enables customers
such as Audi to tackle the toughest design engineering challenges posed by
large-scale CFD simulations. By enabling automotive engineers to
substantially improve product quality, while cutting costs and time-to-market,
Exa's advanced CFD technologies on Sun's HPC platforms help auto makers
worldwide meet the competitive challenges of a global industry."
About Exa Corporation and PowerFLOW
Exa Corporation develops and markets software and services for engineers
to analyze complex fluid flow simulation problems (the movement of air or
other fluids around and through CAD geometry).
By using Exa PowerFLOW software with its patented DIGITAL PHYSICS(R)
technology, customers benefit from faster design cycles, complex geometry
handling capability, parallel scalability and accurate fluid flow results.
With its CAD-universal interface, engineers can easily import their CAD
geometry from popular MCAD products such as Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA, I-DEAS.
PowerFLOW is a complete package including setup, simulation, and
post-processing software for internal and external flow simulations. Using
PowerFLOW engineers today can finally make time-critical product design
improvements part of the concurrent engineering process. A partial list of
PowerFLOW customers include: Audi AG, BMW AG, Caterpillar, Daihatsu,
Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, MIRA, Navistar INTERNATIONAL, Paccar, PSA
Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Trico, U.S. Navy, and Volkswagen AG.
Founded in 1991, the company is headquartered at 450 Bedford Street,
Lexington, MA, USA. 02420. Tel: 781-676-8500; Fax: 781-676-8599; Email:
info@exa.com; URL: http://www.exa.com .
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, The Network Is The
Computer(TM), has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a
leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for
establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the
Internet. With $12.4 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more
than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com .