Linux Powers Billion-Cell Analysis

An Italian supercomputer running ANSYS performed a one-billion-cell analysis of an unnamed America's Cup yacht, breaking the previous record for largest finite element analysis.  The super computer: an HP Cluster Platform 3000BL running Linux, consisting of 208 server blades, each with an Intel Xeon quad-core CPU. Total peak performance was... [Read more]

Which CAD Will Run First on Tesla?

nVidia is turning their CUDA GPU architecture into a desktop computer of the supercomputing variety. ASUS, Dell, and Lenovo are apparently shipping boxes based on nVidia's Tesla C1060 GPU — "the power of a traditional supercomputer cluster at 1/100th of the price." So which mainstream CAD package will be the first? 'Course, it... [Read more]

DS Doesn’t "Get" Blogging

Dassault Systemes launches a new blog, "3D Perspectives: A casual talk about 3D & innovation out of the cloud."  Official Blogger Kate Bourdet writes casually enough in her early postings, describing Dassault's philosophy, design, and so on. DS tends to be one of the more secretive CAD companies, and so I looked forward to reading... [Read more]

Halting the Share Buybacks

Public CAD vendors commonly spent millions repurchasing their own shares. Daniel Gross explains the two reasons for doing so: 1. Repurchases would compensate for the dilution created when executives and employees exercised stock options. 2. By reducing the number of shares outstanding, repurchases would make profits look more impressive. (One dollar... [Read more]

PTC Sale Price: Save 50% Today!

When rumors first circulated of Parametric Technology Corp celebrating its 20th anniversary by putting itself up for sale, the whispered price tag was around $2.4 billion. Since then, the slithering tentacles of sub-prime mortgage greed has chocked off share prices, along with that of PMTC. Today, you can buy the company for half the original asking... [Read more]

CDNS: 12% of Employees Laid Off

Cadence Design Systems gets rid of 625 employees + contractors + consultants to save $150 million in annual expenses. Lip-Bu Tan is Interim vice chairman of the Interim Office of the Chief Executive: The decision to streamline our workforce was made with the utmost care and respect for the hard-working and talented Cadence employees. We believe that... [Read more]

Blog: Extranet Evolution

Extranet Evolution is a thoughtful blog by Paul Wilkinson of the United Kingdom on advances in software for the construction industry. In his real life, Mr Wilinson is head of corporate communications for BIW Technologies, a software-as-a-service developer of business collaboration software and extranet systems.  On the one hand, there is that... [Read more]

ANSS: We Don’t Intend to Reduce Our Revenues

Ansys reports Q3 (ends Sep 30) revenues of $128.8 million, up 37% over the previous quarter. The rocket boost is partly due to its acquisition of Ansoft. Industries devastated like the aftermath of hurricanes? Tidal waves of cutbacks at GM and Toyota? Permafrost on worldwide credit? No, no sign of those tornadoes in the sunny Q4 guidance from Ansys:... [Read more]

Long Tail Debunked

The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports on researchers who refuted Chris Anderson's theory of the long tail. See Chopping the Long Tail Down to Size (The Long Tail theory claims there is much money to be made in selling a few copies of many things.) I'm a long tail kind of guy (no crude jokes, pls), selling modest amounts of  over 40... [Read more]

SketchUp Goes Parametric

A Russian software company, LEDAS of Novosibirsk, has figured out how to make SketchUp do parametric editing. Driving Dimensions plug-in gives Google SketchUp users a unique combination of wide capabilities with an easy-to-use tool for parametric editing of 3D models. At this point, the plug-in is limited to driving two types of dimensions: linear (changing... [Read more]

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