SANTA ANA, Calif. -- MSC.Software Corp., the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) tools including simulation software, services and systems, today announced that Sweden's Sandvik Group, a high-technology and engineering company which specializes in the tooling, industrial machinery and materials science industries, has invested in an 8-node IBM Linux Cluster powered by MSC.Linux to increase the performance of their MSC.Software VPD tools including MSC.Marc and MSC.Patran. The cluster is currently being used by the Sandvik Materials Technology and Sandvik Mining & Construction businesses to simulate production processes like strip-rolling, forging, wire-drawing and to perform various dynamic analyses. "MSC.Software continues to execute on our strategy to provide software, services and systems to our engineering customers in all world markets," said Frank Perna CEO MSC.Software. "Manufacturing companies such as AB Sandvik choose MSC.Software because they want to rely upon one trusted source to provide all of their virtual product development solutions, including simulation software applications and computing infrastructure. We take pride in our customers' success and are confident that Sandvik will see a fast return on their investment." "Being a high tech forefront company, it was a strategic decision for us to go with the MSC.Software offerings," said Tomas Thorvaldson, R&D Director of Sandvik Materials Technology. "Simulation technology and modelling is a decisive factor to our production, and with MSC.Software we know we can rely on 40 years of engineering experience in the manufacturing industry." Fredrik Sandberg, Manager for Process Development Strip Products and Modelling at Sandvik Materials Technology R&D Department, adds: "We are not only looking for a software provider, we need a reliable partner with the engineering experience MSC.Software has. At first, we thought about purchasing the hardware directly but looking back, I am very satisfied that we decided to purchase it as a part of a bundle with the software and services from MSC.Software. The implementation of the software on the 8-node P-4 IBM IntelliStation MSC.Linux cluster went very well and we have full confidence in the services of MSC.Software. I am sure that the implementation of MSC.Software's hardware and software as well as service offerings will improve our manufacturing and modelling process."