ACADEMIA

Taiwanese computer maker Acer high-performance computing server has been used to aid design and simulation in bicycle manufacturing for Velocite Bikes, a local maker of bikes and components.

At the Cycle Show trade fair, which started on Sept. 27 and is expected to conclude on Sept. 30 in the United Kingdom, Velocite CEO Victor Major used an Acer AT350 F2 server to demonstrate the air flow in Velocite's latest bike frame in real time, a statement released by Acer said on Sept. 28.

The AT350 F2 server allowed design improvements to be made during simulation to save time and costs, the statement said.

"Having powerful computing equipment to run advanced simulations can help avoid the guess work and the possibility of an error-prone human analysis of bike design," Major pointed out in the statement.

"Our goal is to eventually have a bike that defies conventional design and gives our users a competitive edge," he added.

The Acer AT350 F2 high-end server would support the powerful Intel Xeon E5 series processors and the latest graphics processing units from Nvidia Corp.

In addition to bike design, Acer's servers were used in high-performance computing applications ranging from manufacturing, car design and simulation to scientific research and weather modeling, the statement noted.

In 2011, Acer had helped the Ferrari Formula One team upgrade its data center through the use of high-speed computing infrastructure and solutions.

Through its European unit, Gateway, Acer used its multi-node servers to simulate F1 cars' behavior under the most extreme weather conditions.