ACADEMIA

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- MSC.Software Corp., the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products including simulation software, services and systems, today announced that Europe's second largest car maker, PSA Peugeot- Citroen Automobiles, purchased a 350,000 euro contract for MSC.Software's MSC.ADAMS/Engine software and technical support to optimize the design of their timing belts. "In today's competitive automotive industry, the major OEMs are working hard to meet and exceed customer demand for automotive engine reliability," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "The best way for automotive companies to develop new engines, decrease their costs and increase their profit margins is to decrease costly physical testing and increase the use of simulation technology. This presents an opportunity for MSC.Software to increase revenue and we are working hard to sell our software, services and systems to the car manufacturers and suppliers around the world." "In order to extend the use and the reliability of simulation tools in PSA process development, our strategy is based on the switch from non-evolutive in-house tools to market open architecture software. Nevertheless, it is important to retain our knowledge through tool customization adapted to all design department needs. These aims are today reached through joint development with software companies like MSC.Software, to have and benefit from standard numerical tools adapted to PSA's needs," said Mr. Pierre Borrel, head of the Technical and Scientific Department. Based on a strong involvement of MSC.ADAMS in the chassis development process, PSA Automobiles has chosen MSC.ADAMS/Engine powered by FEV because of its open architecture, which allows the engineers at PSA to incorporate their expertise gained over many decades of engine design and manufacturing into the software. PSA will benefit from this effort by improving the timing belt design process through quality and time reduction.