INDUSTRY

Cray and Livermore Software Technology Corp. (LSTC) today announced that the Cray XD1 Opteron/Linux-based supercomputer has significantly outperformed all other systems running LSTC's popular LS-DYNA computer-aided engineering (CAE) code, according to benchmark results reported by Cray, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and other vendors. In addition, LSTC announced that it has certified LS-DYNA for operation on the Cray XD1 system. In several tests designed to measure how well systems perform when using LS-DYNA to solve industrial problems, the Cray XD1 supercomputer delivered superior turnaround times -- a key requirement for CAE users committed to shortening their product design cycles -- compared to results reported for alternative systems. "The LS-DYNA benchmarks spotlight how the Cray XD1 system's superior interconnect technology and Linux optimization deliver faster time-to-solution results than other HPC systems based on AMD's Opteron processor -- at prices starting under US$100,000," said Himanshu Misra, CAE business manager at Cray. "Those technical advantages make it possible for the Cray XD1 system to sustain its exemplary efficiency when scaled, allowing engineers to run CAE jobs on more processors. That means LS-DYNA users can increase throughput on their HPC system and run larger, more complex simulations." "LSTC and Cray have had a strong, two-decades-long relationship devoted to improving the performance of LS-DYNA on Cray products and enhancing productivity in the CAE community," said Dr. John Hallquist, president, LSTC. "The Cray XD1 supercomputer makes our code even more valuable to the engineers who use it to simulate collisions, structural deformations and failures, metal stamping, armor penetration and other complex, real-world materials problems. Now those engineers have a solution that provides optimal performance, functionality and scalability." The LS-DYNA benchmark results clearly demonstrate that the Cray XD1 supercomputer, which is purpose-built for HPC code, significantly outperforms other vendors' general-purpose Opteron-based systems, and also turns in faster results than cluster systems that use Itanium 2 processors. Some highlights: -- A 32-processor Cray XD1 supercomputer was 29% faster than a similarly configured Opteron cluster when running the three-car collision test. -- The Cray XD1 system outstripped the Opteron cluster by 31% in the neon-refined test. -- When matched against a 32-processor Itanium 2 cluster, the Cray XD1 system ran the three-car collision benchmark 9% faster. In a 64-processor configuration, the Cray system was 12% quicker than the Itanium 2 system, demonstrating superior scalability. The full benchmark data is published at www.topcrunch.org and was valid as of March 31, 2005.