DEFENSE

Cray today announced that computational fluid dynamics (CFD) consulting and software firm CD-adapco has purchased a six-chassis (72-processor) Cray XD1 supercomputer to meet the increasing computational demands of a broad range of CFD problems. Running its own STAR-CD and STAR-CCM+ CFD simulation codes, CD-adapco provides computer-aided engineering (CAE) solutions for the design and manufacture of products in the automotive, aerospace, biomedical, building, environmental, chemical process, marine, oil and gas, power generation and turbomachinery industries. "We made this purchase decision after closely comparing the price/performance benefits of the Cray XD1 system with those of competing hardware vendors," said Peter S. MacDonald, president of CD-adapco. "The system's faster turnaround times and better scalability give us the ability to solve highly complex problems and run very large CFD workloads. The Cray XD1 supercomputer also promises to help us improve productivity in our growing consulting business by meeting rapidly accelerating computational demands." "The Cray XD1 supercomputer architecture is specifically designed and optimized for the compute/communication-intensive codes that power real-world CFD applications," said Himanshu Misra, CAE Business Manager at Cray. "The numerical characteristics of CD-adapco's Star-CD code are a good match for the Cray XD1 system hardware. And the system's innovative interconnect lets CAE users efficiently scale their applications to much larger problem sizes and processor counts, while delivering price/performance that surpasses competing CAE systems. With a list price starting under US$100,000, the Cray XD1 system offers exceptional value for CAE workgroups of all sizes."