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CANONSBURG, Pa. -- ANSYS Inc. , the global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, today announced the availability of AI*NASTRAN(TM). AI*NASTRAN was developed though a strategic OEM partnership with Schaeffer Automated Simulation LLC (SAS LLC), a provider of NASTRAN simulation software and services. Built from the original NASA NASTRAN source code, AI*NASTRAN is the ideal tool for solving extremely large and complex problems. Driving the development of ANSYS' AI*NASTRAN is SAS LLC, headed by CAE industry pioneers Dr. Harry Schaeffer and Dr. Richard MacNeal, co-founder of MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation. The SAS team is comprised of industry experts with significant expertise and experience in the development and deployment of NASTRAN-based technologies. "Our history of experience with the NASTRAN technology -- as well as an understanding of what customers require and what needs were previously unmet -- allow us to deliver a superior NASTRAN product," said Dr. Richard MacNeal, Chief Theoretician, SAS LLC. "This is a true NASTRAN product," said Ted Rose, Director of Technology, SAS LLC. "While other products may include NASTRAN in their name, many of them are not based on the NASTRAN source code that was originally developed for NASA. These NASTRAN emulator products often end up frustrating users due to poor compatibility and do not support critical applications requiring DMAP." A significant feature of AI*NASTRAN is its Direct Matrix Abstraction Program (DMAP) capability. DMAP is a controllable programming language providing flexibility allowing the user to customize or tailor the execution of NASTRAN to perform a custom solution sequence operation. It also provides flexibility to allow for some types of capability updates and error fixes to be easily implemented without requiring a re-release or patch update of the software. For decades companies have relied upon NASTRAN for its robust modeling elements and powerful solvers to prove mission-critical design concepts. AI*NASTRAN contains many enhancements that leverage the time-proven strengths of that program's architecture. Enhancements to the NASA-NASTRAN source code have been made in the following areas: -- Problem size limits removed -- Element technology upgraded -- Solver speed increased -- Program architecture streamlined -- Platform support expanded AI*NASTRAN is available for a number of platforms and operating systems, including Windows 2000, Linux, Sun Solaris, Silicon Graphics IRIX, Hewlett- Packard HP-UX and IBM AIX. Distribution and support for AI*NASTRAN will be provided exclusively by ANSYS Inc. and its global network of channel partners. "We selected ANSYS Inc. to be the sole distributor and support network for this new NASTRAN solution based on their solid reputation in the CAE industry," said Dr. Harry Schaeffer, President, SAS LLC. "We are extremely confident that AI*NASTRAN provides an industry standard NASTRAN capability for a majority of the analyses most frequently run throughout the worldwide NASTRAN user community."