applications Cloud drives simulation and


At the European Altair Technology conference,


Robert Roe heard that new tools for simulation and


cloud technology are driving innovation within modelling and simulation


H


igh–performance computing is becoming much more relevant to CAE, James Scappa, CEO of Altair, told the company’s annual


European Altair Technology conference in Paris at the end of September. HPC is one of several trends that are


driving change within the industry, he told his audience of more than 650 simulation and engineering professionals. As well as an increase in the use of HPC, change was being brought about by the proliferation of cloud computing and also by a much tighter focus on workload optimisation and power consumption, he said. Although in planning for some time,


this year’s Altair European technology conference had to be improvised – a fire at the planned venue meant it had to be transferred at the last minute to the Cité de la Musique in Paris. Scappa opened proceedings with his views on the trends that are driving change in the modelling and simulation market, with a particular focus on strategic decision making to drive product development forward. Early in his presentation, Scappa said:


‘HPC is becoming hugely more relevant to the market than it was before – all the guys doing analytics on a business side, banks are buying Cray computers and doing a huge amount of HPC.’ Scappa continued with an optimistic


assessment of cloud computing, but he laid emphasis on private rather than public


34 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD


clouds: ‘Private cloud computing, I think, is a really top priority for most large size enterprises to manage their computing infrastructure. Although many of the large companies are very nervous and say “we would never go for public cloud computing” most of the concerns are around security, but I think that is changing.’


HPC IS BECOMING


HUGELY MORE RELEVANT TO THE MARKET THAN IT WAS BEFORE


He explained that workload optimisation


is a big area of focus for the development teams at Altair which they were highlighting at the show – particularly with the latest release of PBS Professional 13.0 earlier this year. ‘We are doing a lot of things with our PBS technology to control how much power is being used and that is a real driving trend,’ said Scappa. ‘Our focus is on design synthesis,


electronics and communications simulation,


visual analytics and machine learning, simple solutions to leverage the cloud and the transformation of the user experience,’ Scappa concluded. Uwe Schramm, the company’s chief


technical officer, solvers and optimisation, said: ‘Twenty years ago we started with Optistruct, a linear solver with a little bit of optimisation. Now we have developed a really broad portfolio of multi–physics applications and we do this through development and acquisition.’ Tere have been many developments


this year from a move into electromagnetic simulation to the acquisition of soſtware packages and extended partnerships. Schramm said: ‘Optistruct is really becoming a broad implicit solver for linear and non– linear simulation technology and then not to forget our efforts in vibrations and acoustics. Simulation soſtware for crash analysis is also advancing. We are looking at the composite area and I think Radioss is a leading tool for this.’ Schramm explained that a big change for engineering soſtware is the way in which its ➤


@scwmagazine l www.scientific–computing.com


collaboration


Altair


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