INDUSTRY

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois will collaborate with Nimbis Services Inc. to increase the high-performance computing capabilities and enhance the productivity of leading companies and their suppliers. Nimbis will connect its clients to the compute resources and commercial application software at NCSA, lowering the risks and effort for these companies to access high-performance computing (HPC). According to a 2004 survey conducted by the Council on Competitiveness, 97 percent of major companies could not function without high-performance computing and computational science. "Digital modeling and simulation provide benefits, like less expensive prototyping, for a wide range of industries, but the high level of expertise required is a barrier to entry for many companies, particularly smaller ones," said NCSA's Merle Giles, leader of the center's Private Sector Program. "Through this collaboration with Nimbis, we believe we can streamline access to both hardware and software, enabling more companies to take advantage of the power of high-performance computing and enhancing productivity throughout the entire supply chain." "NCSA has a history performing joint R&D with major commercial companies," said Robert Graybill, Nimbis president and CEO. "I am pleased to be working with NCSA to now help extend the benefits of digital analysis computing that these commercial companies enjoy to their suppliers by lowering the entry barriers. Access to high-performance modeling and simulation at NCSA has led to breakthroughs for many companies: * Without digital modeling, developing new drugs was a costly, time-consuming trial-and-error process. With NCSA, Eli Lilly helped inaugurate the era of rational drug design, simulating the three-dimensional structures of enzymes and molecules important in disease processes and tailoring treatments to their shape and behavior. * NCSA helped Caterpillar use virtual prototyping to slash the amount of time required to design and evaluate new products. Their wheel and backhoe loaders were the first commercial U.S. products prototyped largely in virtual reality. * Motorola used NCSA's supercomputers to simulate and model enhancements to advanced cellular system operation; the resulting design was accepted as the industry standard and led to improvements in cell phone service. For more information on how NCSA helps businesses improve their productivity, go to its Web site. For more information on Nimbis Services, see its web site.