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ESI GROUP ANNOUNCES NEW INDUSTRIAL PARALLEL VERSION OF ITS FINITE ELEMENT FOUNDRY SIMULATION SOFTWARE
05 April 2005 - ESI Group
| ESI Group, leading provider of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, today announced the release of ProCAST 2005, a comprehensive finite element software package for foundry simulation. ProCAST 2005 offers an efficient and accurate solution for a wide range of processes and alloys, from high and low-pressure die casting to sand casting and investment casting. The new DMP (Distributed Memory Parallel) version enables customers to achieve unmatched performance as simulation tasks are distributed amongst several processors running in parallel, at a very competitive cost. The release provides an industrial and highly scalable version on Linux clusters and UNIX multiprocessor platforms. |
ESI Group, leading provider of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, today announced the release of ProCAST 2005, a comprehensive finite element software package for foundry simulation. ProCAST 2005 offers an efficient and accurate solution for a wide range of processes and alloys, from high and low-pressure die casting to sand casting and investment casting. The new DMP (Distributed Memory Parallel) version enables customers to achieve unmatched performance as simulation tasks are distributed amongst several processors running in parallel, at a very competitive cost. The release provides an industrial and highly scalable version on Linux clusters and UNIX multiprocessor platforms. "With parallel processing, even the most complex processes can be simulated overnight allowing foundries to do more mold design iterations in less time", says Dominique Lefebvre, Casting Solutions Product Manager, ESI Group. "This new DMP version was specifically tuned for small to medium size parallel hardware configurations to deliver high performance at a very competitive cost. Furthermore, the hardware configuration, number of CPU and interconnect switch, can be adapted to meet the end-user requirements in terms of turn around times." For optimal scalability, the parallelization of ProCAST 2005 relies on the dynamic domain decomposition technology. Automatically activated in ProCAST 2005, this feature is used to distribute a task on multiple processors. The finite element mesh of the CAD model is partitioned in as many sub-domains as there are processors. To be efficient, the decomposition needs to provide a balanced repartition of the workload and a minimal interface between the different partitions in order to reduce the data exchange between processors. As the casting is gradually filled during the simulation, the load balancing continuously evolves. To maintain optimal scalability, ProCAST 2005 automatically updates the domain decomposition at regular intervals. The performance of the parallel solver depends on the size of the model, the type of application and system components such as interconnects related to interprocessor communication. Results obtained on a Linux cluster with Gigabit Ethernet interconnect show an acceleration of the speed of analysis up to 6 times for both filling and solidification on 8 processors. Higher scalability can be obtained with more powerful interconnect for up to 32 processors. The ProCAST 2005 parallel version is available on Linux hardware vendors supported clusters as well as UNIX multiprocessor platforms from IBM and SGI.
http://www.esi-group.com
About: ESI Group
ESI Group is the world leading software editor for the numerical simulation of prototype and manufacturing process engineering in applied mechanics. The key to ESI Group's success is the use of realistic material physics, providing "as good as real" virtual solutions, in order to replace the lengthy trial and error processes on real prototypes.ESI Group has developed an entire suite of coherent industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product's behavior during testing, to fine tune the manufacturing processes in synergy with the desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment's impact on product usage. ESI Group's product portfolio, which has been industrially validated and combined in multi-trade value chains, represents a unique collaborative, virtual engineering solution, known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling a continuous improvement on the virtual prototype. By drastically reducing costs and development lead times, VTOS solutions offer major competitive advantages by progressively eliminating the need for physical prototypes. A sustained growth Total consolidated revenue for fiscal year 2003, ending January 31st 2004, increased by 15% in real terms and 22% at constant exchange rates, compared to the previous year reaching 49 million euro. The software activity remained stable with 73% from licenses and 27% from services. The major acquisitions made in 2002 and 2003 accounted for 15% of revenue growth and took part in the strengthening of the Group's position on the American market. As in previous years, ESI Group maintained a strong international presence with 50% of turnover generated outside Europe and 79% of revenue outside. Listed on the Nouveau Marché of Euronext Paris, ESI Group employs almost 500 high-level specialists worldwide.
ESI Group and its global network of agents provide sales and technical support to customers in more than 30 countries. A key investment area: Research and Development ESI Group is making substantial R&D efforts and forms partnerships with leading academic and research laboratories in order to offer state-of-the-art solutions. ESI Group also provides high value-added services, worldwide through its subsidiaries located in Europe, Asia and Americas. Consulting projects with strategic industrial partners as well as European R&D contracts exemplify ESI Group's strong engineering knowledge and scientific expertise. |
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