SCIENCE

Netlist announced that it is partnering with Swift Engineering, a leading global designer and manufacturer of composite high-performance aerodynamic structures. The two companies are teaming up to enhance Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations for design, testing and analysis of high-performance aircraft and racecars.  Leveraging the benefits of Netlist's HyperCloud 16GB memory module, Swift is able to push the traditional capabilities of memory intensive CFD with next-generation simulations.

Designing racecars and aircraft with optimal performance characteristics is a difficult task requiring intensive development and analysis at each step of the process.  To do so, Swift uses tools such as Altair's HyperWorks suite, Metacomp Technologies' CFD++ and Platform Computing cluster management software (Platform HPC) on its pair of Cray CX1s and Cray CX1000 High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. With the integration of Netlist's HyperCloud memory, these tools have the memory and processing power to handle transactions rapidly with maximum bandwidth performance.

"With Netlist, we were able to create CFD grids 4 times larger than with our standard memory configuration which was crucial in allowing us to tackle larger and more complicated problems," said Dr. John Winkler, Swift's Chief Aerodynamicist. "In fact, adding Netlist's HyperCloud modules to our HPC resources is instrumental in our quest to being the first to publish a comprehensive 'unsteady CFD study' of two racecars interacting in a complete passing maneuver before the year is out!"

HyperCloud overcomes memory constraints associated with CFD simulations and complex modeling. In this instance, HyperCloud memory was integrated on the Cray CX1 system utilizing Intel Westmere processors to achieve unprecedented 192GB total memory running at 1333 MT/s.

"We are excited to deliver the performance advantages Swift requires to advance its design process," said Steve McClure, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Netlist. "With Netlist's higher memory capacities and speeds, Swift is able to glean significant advantage in time-to-market and total project costs."

Swift is a featured presenter at the International Motorsports Industry Show's Aero Seminar and will present its unsteady CFD racecar passing maneuver study December 7th, 2011.