COVENTRY, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 2003--Altair Engineering
Ltd, a global leader in product design consulting, engineering
software and high performance computing technology, has been granted
exclusivity by NEC High Performance Computing Europe for the provision
of Linux cluster solutions to the United Kingdom and Ireland
manufacturing industry. The organisations will work closely together
on the marketing, sales, implementation and support of this leading
price/performance solution. The parties will combine their extensive
application and hardware expertise to deliver a highly optimised
turnkey solution.
Dr Royston Jones, Managing Director of Altair Engineering Ltd
said, "Altair has deep knowledge of the manufacturing space through
offering its comprehensive design toolbox, Altair HyperWorks. This
suite contains unique software technologies which accelerate the
virtual design process (e.g. optimisation and robust design). Altair's
workload management and job scheduler software, PBS Pro, will ensure
maximum utilisation of the Linux hardware. The turnkey solution
arrives on the client's site containing these technologies and other
third party software such as crash simulation (e.g. LS-DYNA) or
computational fluid dynamics (e.g. Fluent)".
Dr Jones added, "Two years ago we promoted a vision to hardware
vendors of a turnkey software/hardware solution to facilitate rapidly
emerging technologies in computer aided engineering software and Linux
cluster hardware architectures. Since this time, we have pioneered the
implementation of these tools. Ford, for example, achieved return on
investment from Altair PBS Pro after just 10 months. Furthermore, NEC
has a solid track record in supplying Linux clusters to major
manufacturing clients. For instance, Volkswagen has acknowledged NEC's
expertise in system setup and support. With the maturing of the
hardware and software technologies, we can accommodate the explosion
in virtual design which is now possible. In developing Altair OptiBox,
the integrated cluster solution, NEC was clearly identified as a
strategic partner to facilitate our vision. They not only provide a
highly competitive price/performance but, importantly, minimise the
total cost of ownership through their effective support
infrastructure. Having strategically placed virtual design at the
heart of a company's process, reliability is paramount".
Dr Andreas Findling, strategic business unit leader for cluster
solutions at NEC HPC Europe agreed, "We are excited about the new
partnership with Altair. The combination of Altair's software
technology, the reliable NEC HPC Linux environment and powerful
hardware from NEC means we can create a solution that perfectly
matches the needs of the UK and Irish manufacturing industry."
About Altair Engineering Limited
Through engineering, consulting and high performance computing
technologies, Altair Engineering Ltd increases innovation in
manufacturing. Altair Engineering Ltd is the UK subsidiary of Altair
Engineering Inc, founded in 1985, which serves more than 1,300 clients
around the globe. Altair's unparalleled knowledge and expertise in
product development and manufacturing extend throughout Europe, North
America and Asia. Altair specialises in the development of high-end,
open CAE software solutions for modelling, visualisation, optimisation
and process automation. PBS Pro, the commercial version of the
Portable Batch System, was acquired by Altair in March 2003. Altair
OptiBox installations consist of Altair PBS Pro, Altair HyperWorks,
additional third party software technologies, system performance
monitoring tools and NEC Linux cluster hardware. For more information
visit Altair at
www.uk.altair.com
About NEC HPCE GmbH
NEC High Performance Computing Europe GmbH, created in February
2003 serves as a distributor of NEC HPC solutions. It inherited the
NEC ESS business of high-end users primarily in the areas of
meteorology/climate, aerospace, automobiles and research. The total
number of orders received for the SX Series exceeds 180, a solid
foundation for HPC business. The new company is expanding its business
to provide a wide range of high performance computing solutions.
Besides the SX Series, it distributes high performance servers
equipped with Intel's 64-bit general purpose CPU Itanium(R)2 and
supercomputing clusters made of standard PC components. These
solutions are targeted at the science and technology market. NEC HPCE
GmbH provides systems integration services, for other related platform
products, such as network and peripheral devices, according to
customers' needs and market requirements. A variety of support
services such as hardware-lease, system operation, application
tuning/analysis support, and also education and training will be
offered. NEC supercomputers are used for simulation tasks in industry
and research worldwide. NEC HPCE GmbH, has its headquarters in
Dusseldorf, Germany, and has more than 70 employees. There are offices
in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Lugano, Stuttgart and Milan. For
additional information please visit the NEC home page at
http://www.hpce.nec.com
Screenshots from Altair's HyperWorks and PBS Pro software and the
Altair Engineering logo are available. Please contact Ben Sutton,
Email Contact, +44 (0)24 7632 3600.
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CONTACT: Altair Engineering David Green, +44 (0)24 7632 3600 Email Contact or NEC HPC Europe Dr. Jorg Stadler, +49 211 5369 0 Email Contact