Cray Inc. and MSC.Software Partner to Improve Automotive Time-to-Market, Ride and Handling
9 October 2000
Cray Inc. and MSC.Software Partner to Improve Automotive Time-to-Market, Ride and Handling
DETROIT--Oct. 9, 2000--Supercomputer Collaboration Yields 900 Percent Speedup In Key Noise,
Vibration and Harshness (NVH) Calculations Using MSC.Nastran
Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. and MSC.Software Corporation , the world's leading provider of simulation software and services to manufacturers, today announced the first results of a collaboration program to enable automakers to bring new car and truck models to market faster, with improved ride and handling characteristics. The announcement was made at MSC.Software's Second Worldwide Automotive Conference being held here this week.
Early results of the supercomputing collaboration include a 900-percent speedup in key calculations for Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) Optimization using the industry-standard MSC.Nastran software product. NVH Optimization--crucial for designing a new vehicle's ride, handling and interior acoustical properties--has been one of the most daunting computing tasks for automakers worldwide. By significantly speeding up the computationally intensive "sensitivity calculations" within MSC.Nastran, Cray Inc. and MSC.Software have made it practical for automakers to try out more possibilities when developing new models, and to shorten overall development cycles.
"The MSC Software-Cray program will enable auto manufacturers to make cars safer and more comfortable through better computer simulation of how a car will handle and feel to a driver," said Jeff Morgan, vice president, MSC.Software Corporation. "NVH Optimization enhancements in MSC.Nastran will also enable manufacturers to meet other important design objectives, such as reducing vehicle weight."
"NVH Optimization is arguably the single most important design objective for automakers today," said Cray Inc. President and CEO Jim Rottsolk. "Auto designers will now be able to run massive NVH Optimization jobs overnight that formerly took several days to complete. Because of our alliance with MSC.Software, future enhancements will be available first on Cray supercomputer systems." Rottsolk said Cray and MSC.Software plan to enhance other key modules of MSC.Nastran. "Our goal is to make the combination of Cray supercomputers and MSC.Nastran even more valuable to automotive and other manufacturers."
Dr. Erwin Johnson, section head for Design Optimization and Aeroelasticity at MSC.Software, said, "We are pleased that our long-standing relationship with Cray Research has evolved this way with Cray Inc., the successor firm. Cray has a deep understanding of the automotive industry that complements our own highly talented staff. We expect more exciting achievements from this program."
About MSC.Software Corporation
MSC.Software is the world's leading provider of simulation software and services to major manufacturers worldwide. MSC.Software's software and services are used to enhance and automate the product design and manufacturing process. The ability to model and test software prototypes has cost effectively enabled manufacturers to design and build everything from sophisticated aircraft and automobiles to electronic products. Simulating product performance reduces development costs, time to market and warranty costs, positively impacting customer profitability. MSC.Software is capitalizing on the advantages of the Linux operating system for high performance computing, and the Web in all of its forms. For additional information about MSC.visualNastran, our ASP, or Linux initiative, visit us at www.engineering-e.com, or www.mscsoftware.com.
About Cray Inc.
Cray Inc. designs, builds and sells high-performance vector processor and general-purpose parallel computer systems. The company has leading edge technology, multiple product platforms, nearly 900 employees, a $2 billion installed base of over 600 computers worldwide, major manufacturing and service capabilities and extensive global customer relationships. Cray believes its Multithreaded Architecture and Cray T3E(TM) and Cray SV2(TM) systems together represent the future of supercomputing. Go to www.cray.com for more information on the company.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain factors that could cause Cray's execution plans to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. Among such factors risks are expected delivery and acceptance times, and timely availability of commercially acceptable components from third party suppliers. For a discussion of such risks, and other risks that could affect Cray's future performance, please see "Risk Factors" in Cray Inc.'s most recent SEC Form 10-Q.
MSC is a registered trademark of MSC.Software Corporation. Cray is a registered trademark, and Cray T3E and Cray SV2 are trademarks, of Cray Inc. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.