August 1, 2006
By DE Editors
Industry News, Reports, and Items of Interest
AMD to Acquire ATI
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced it will purchase ATI Technologies in a transaction valued at about $5.4 billion. A joint press release says the combination will create a processing powerhouse by bringing AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors together with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets, and consumer electronics.
AMD Chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz says the deal should drive growth, innovation, and choice for its customers, particularly in the commercial and mobile computing segments.
“Bringing these two great companies together will allow us to transcend what we have accomplished as individual businesses and reinvent our industry,” Ruiz said.
The New York Times seems to agree. It stated in a news report the combination of the two companies “will reshape the semiconductor industry.”
According to AMD, the ATI acquisition means the company will be able to deliver innovations that fulfill the increasing demand for more integrated solutions. Beginning in 2008, AMD says it aims to move beyond current technological configurations to transform processing technologies, using silicon-specific platforms that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors.
Under the terms of the transaction, AMD will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of ATI for a combination of $4.2 billion in cash and 57 million shares of AMD common stock. In the event that the transaction does not close, ATI has agreed to pay AMD a termination fee of $162 million as specified in the acquisition agreement. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Contacts
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA
ATI Technologies
Markham, ONT
Platform Introduces Grid PLM Enabler
Platform Computing has announced Platform LSF for V5 PLM, a customized version of its Platform LSF for use with Dassault Systemes’ V5 PLM (product lifecycle management) software. Platform LSF for V5 PLM provides the same capabilities as Platform LSF and augments those capabilities with functionality that grid-enables V5 batch operations—the company states that Platform LSF for V5 PLM is the first product to grid-enable PLM.
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| Platform LSF for V5 PLM |
Platform LSF for V5 PLM is said to optimize resources and address computing infrastructure challenges for enterprises in the aerospace, biotech, and automotive industries. Platform LSF allows V5 users to balance the load on computing resources within a compute grid, schedule batch processes based on user priorities, and monitor processes. It can even perform job interventions.
Based on Dassault’s CAA V5 (Component Application Architecture Version 5), Platform LSF for V5 PLM schedules and distributes operations throughout a grid-enabled enterprise from within the CATIA V5 environment. Currently, it grid-enables 11 V5 batch operations ranging from CAE to digital mockups and from clash detections to data conversions. Features include the ability to execute V5 batch operations on servers or desktops and automatic job tracking and updates.
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| Platform LSF for V5 PLM |
Platform LSF for V5 PLM runs on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP Professional (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 1 or 2, or IBM AIX 5.3 ML3 (64 bit). It requires CATIA V5 R16 SP4 or later. For more information on Platform LSF for V5 PLM, click here.
Contacts
Platform Computing
Markham, ONT
Dassault Systemes
Paris, France
Smart Mold Components for VX Users
VX Corporation says VX CAD/CAM has been integrated with Lib3D, a library of smart mechanical components for mold makers. The inclusion enables the ability to automatically generate and completely edit entire mold assemblies with VX programs.
Lib3D, a third-party product available from VX’s Italian distributor, Antares Italia, includes a range of mold bases from popular catalogs and BOM management along with standard mold components such as fasteners, waterlines, and sliders. When using Lib3D with VX CAD/CAM, complete mold assemblies are automatically generated and editable using the VX Mold & Die and End-to-End bundles.
According to VX, users can select components for mold assemblies such as fasteners to a series of plates; Lib3D automatically calculates the required length and clearances and allocates manufacturing attributes to the resultant holes in the plates. All component attributes are available in the VX BOM and the automatic hole-making strategies in VX CAM. Lib3D also includes a development tool that allows users to build their own standard library of components. It follows the VX graphic user interface standards.
Two bundles are available: Lib3D Basic and Lib3D Advanced. For more information and downloads, visit click here.
Contacts
Antares Italia sas
Besozzo, Italy
VX Corp.
Palm Bay, FL
Strategic Test Eliminates Ownership Costs Associated with Its Cards
Strategic Test Corporation will provide free software updates and technical support for all future purchases of its UltraFast range of Digitizer, AWG, fast Digital I/O, and Digital Pattern Generator cards. The company said it would also provide the free services to all UltraFast products purchased during the previous five years.
Customers will be able to register and download the latest software and manual releases by visiting strategic-test. com/support. The download area contains the latest drivers for Windows and Linux, and will be updated with Windows Vista drivers as they become available. Other drivers for MATLAB, LabVIEW, VEE, DASYLab, and LabWindows/CVI can also be obtained. The only software not available are the driver sources for Linux that are obtainable on receipt of a non-disclosure agreement direct from the client.
“We believe in fair business,” says Bob Giblett, president of Strategic Test. “It seems to us that if customer suggestions contribute to new features that make our products the most versatile in the market, we in turn should provide the benefit to all of our customers without cost. If the customer can see that they get a direct benefit by sharing their ideas within the community of users, they will be even more motivated to make the effort to contact us…. Clearly we need to make that investment in order to sell our products in the future.”
Strategic Test says it decided to formalize its lifetime support commitment because it noticed an industry trend to charge for prime support. While the standard hardware warranty period on its products is two years, Strategic Test is now offering to extend the period to five years for a onetime payment of 1 percent of the purchase price. For more information, visit click here.
Contacts
Strategic Test Corp.
Woburn, MA
Simulation Data, Processes Supported Across Enterprise and Supply Chain
MSC.Software Corp. says SimManager Enterprise lets organizations leverage their engineering processes throughout their disbursed enterprise to speed up design and development. In a related announcement, the company announced its new strategic alliance with IBM.
MSC.Software described SimManager Enterprise as providing functionality that allows organizations to create, manage, and re-use simulation data efficiently. Further, SimManager Enterprise provides the means for companies to control, share, and extend engineering data and the processes related to their products both internally and externally into the supply chain.
SimManager Enterprise is part of SimEnterprise, an enterprise simulation platform that provides the infrastructure and functionality engineering teams and others need to access and work with data as well as share simulation data across the extended enterprise.
SimManager Enterprise offers functionality to bring simulation data under control, irrespective of development platform or location. It has tools to locate data for re-use and can automatically capture simulation processes using a best-practices approach.
SimManager Enterprise uses a thin-client architecture that facilitates communication of data throughout the enterprise and supply chain. Since it has an open-systems approach to integration, it deploys easily with other enterprise systems such as PLM and ERP.
Also announced is a new strategic alliance between IBM and MSC. As a result, MSC will embed and optimize IBM technology, including DB2, Websphere and Tivoli, as a part of SimManager Enterprise. It will pre-configure and test these technologies for ease of installation, rapid scalability, and aligning smoothly with enterprise architecture strategies such as the adoption of an enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The combination of IBM’s technology, services, and integration expertise with SimManager Enterprise’s capabilities provides a solution stack to manage simulation processes and product performance data, ensuring scalability for global deployments.
The combined SOA lets users take advantage of deploying an on-demand enterprise built from reusable components that curb development costs and improve time to market. On a related note, IBM selected MSC’s MD Nastran for a simulation component of On Demand Business initiative.
IBM Global Services will develop what it calls “Centers of Competence” that will help deliver CAE enterprise solutions to clients in association with SimManager Enterprise implementations. IBM Global Services will also resell and implement SimManager Enterprise, and both companies will undertake joint sales and marketing activities.
Contacts
MSC.Software Corp.
Santa Ana, CA
IBM
Armonk, NY
Remote CFD Learning Facility Launched
CD-adapco has launched STAR-Tutor, the company’s new online tutoring service designed to ramp up its user base’s expertise to help it better leverage CFD. The online program is designed to help CD-adapco’s customers train in specialist applications or improve their CFD knowledge from their local workstations. The company also says that STAR-Tutor’s format lets engineers fit personal development training into their workday schedule.
The training sessions run at regular intervals, last between one and three hours each, and are led by CD-adapco’s staff of CAE engineers. Sessions include CFD 101: Best Practices; Turbulence Modeling; Integrated Thermal Management; Heat Transfer; External Aerodynamic Modeling; Advanced Meshing; Combustion; Multiphase Flows; Internal Combustion Engine Modeling; and Parametric Design Studies Using STAR-Design.
For further information and to sign up for STAR-Tutor, click here.
Contacts
CD-adapco
London, UK
FreeDesign Unveils FreeDimension
FreeDesign Inc. introduced patent-pending N-Sided Surfacing (NSS) technology in Free-Dimension, which frees users from quadrilateral surfacing technologies like NURBS and Bezier surfaces. According to a press release, the NSS technology enables FreeDimension to present a curve-based interface to the user that more closely mimics the pencil-and-paper method of design, creating more freedom and innovation for designers in product development, industrial design, and 3D gaming.
“FreeDimension provides the flexibility that designers should have had all along,” says Dick Sowar, CEO of FreeDesign. “Not only that, using FreeDimension actually makes 3D design fun and rewarding.”
FreeDesign unveiled FreeDimension at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston last month. For more information, click here.
Contacts
FreeDesign Inc.
Longmont, CO
New Thickness Tool Released
Geometric Software Solutions, a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) services and technologies, says its GeomCaliper for Pro/Engineer Wildfire can measure and check the wall thickness of Pro/E Wildfire 3D models. It is said to be easy to use and can be accessed within a Wildfire session, providing immediate feedback to designers. It will help engineers quickly detect thin areas in plastic components or thick sections in castings, with minimal training required.
GeomCaliper offers advanced visualization for easy interpretation of results, gives the ability to clip models at any section, performs dynamic thickness displays, and publishes custom reports in XML/HTML formats.
Wildfire customers will benefit from its 3D-oriented features such as advanced thickness map display and manipulation.
Contacts
Geometric Software Solutions
Mumbai, India
VISTAGY Releases New Airframe Tool
VISTAGY, Inc., a provider of specialized engineering software, announced the release of the Airframe Design Environment (ADE), the latest member of VISTAGY’s family of off-the-shelf specialized engineering environments powered by EnCapta. According to the company, the software is the first-ever application integrated into commercial CAD systems that is specifically tailored to designing and manufacturing airframes.
The ADE enables aerospace engineers to capture all essential non-geometric information related to parts or fasteners, as well as automate airframe-specific design and manufacturing processes, to create complete 3D digital product definitions of components and assemblies. As a result, says a press release, manufacturers in the aerospace industry can develop aircraft structures more efficiently, quickly, and cost effectively.
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| Airframe Design Environment |
The ADE supports model-based definition (MBD) initiatives and offers complete functionality for capturing all types of data, materials, and methodologies specific to airframe design including assembly hardware models; joints, including the characteristics of the interface-like electrical conductivity, material compatibility, loads, and joining processes; fasteners, automating fastener definition through access to a fastener library; and process requirements like hole specifications and manufacturing instructions. The software feeds this information to downstream applications by generating data for ERP, procurement, manufacturing, and quality directly from the 3D definition, enabling accurate communication throughout the engineering process.
All VISTAGY applications powered by EnCapta, including the Airframe Design Environment, operate within CATIA V5, Pro/Engineer Wildfire, and NX CAD systems. The ADE is currently available to all global customers. For more information, click here.
Contacts
VISTAGY, Inc.
Waltham, MA
Scali Extends Support for Solaris 10
Organizations running Solaris 10 OS-based clusters now have a new option on the market. The Scali MPI Connect product now supports the Solaris 10 operating system (OS) on Sun Fire x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers. Scali is a provider of cluster management software for Linux data centers.
According to the company, in addition to multi-platform support for leading interconnects such as GbE and Myrinet, Scali MPI Connect is now the only professionally developed MPI available for InfiniBand running with Solaris 10 on the Sun Fire x64 platform. Scali MPI Connect is aimed at increasing the efficiency of cluster interconnects, improving communication between compute nodes, and maximizing the cluster’s overall performance.
Scali’s MPI will be integrated with the Sun N1 Grid Engine, which provides job scheduling and workload management for high-performance computing grids. Scali Manage will be made available on the Solaris 10 OS in a future release.
For more information, visit click here.
Contacts
Scali
Marlborough, MA
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About the Author
DE’s editors contribute news and new product announcements to Digital Engineering.
Press releases may be sent to them via [email protected].
