ACADEMIA

MSC.Software today announced it has joined the newly formed Itanium Solutions Alliance. As the first simulation company to provide support of Intel's 64-bit Itanium 2 processors, MSC.Software has committed to work with the Alliance to further the capabilities of High Performance Computing solutions based on Itanium platforms. MSC.Nastran is the world's most widely used FEA program for simple to complex, linear and nonlinear analyses of structural, fluid, thermal, and coupled systems. Deployment of MSC.Nastran on Itanium platforms offers customers world class solution performance for this critical tool. "As the world leader in Virtual Product Development, MSC.Software is proud to be a contributing member of the Itanium Solutions Alliance," said Frank Kovacs, vice president of strategic alliances, MSC.Software. "MSC was the first simulation company to provide beta support of Intel's Itanium 64-bit dual core platform and our upcoming release of MSC.Nastran will include advanced optimizations and will extend the performance customers will see with high-end analysis. We will continue to strengthen our collaboration with the Alliance to accelerate the delivery of low cost enterprise VPD solutions that enable our customers to reduce time-to-market and increase market share." The Itanium Solutions Alliance was formed by leading enterprise and technical computing providers to work together toward a common goal of transitioning the world of proprietary computing platforms to the new datacenter based on open, industry standards based platforms. Membership comprises some of the most influential companies in the computing industry who will focus on expanding Itanium solutions capability for high performance computing and mission critical enterprise deployments. "Since the Itanium Solutions Alliance launch in September, industry interest in participation has been strong." said Kirk Skaugen, Intel's representative to the Itanium Solutions Alliance Steering Committee. "MSC is the first VPD provider to join the Alliance and brings a unique expertise to the group. We look forward to their joining other industry leaders in driving new capabilities to Itanium platforms."