The only constant in numerical simulation over the past 30 years or so has been the amazing pace of change of computer hardware. In 20 years we have gone from multimillion dollar super computers to desktop machines with more horsepower. And the prices are incredible. PADT gets regular inquiries for recommendations on how to get the most out of today’s hardware, so we thought we would dedicate a whole seminar to it.

Managers, End-users and IT people are invited to an informative discussion of some of the fundamentals behind High Performance Computing with ANSYS, Inc. products, lessons PADT has learned helping our customers implement HPC and some tips and hints on how to get that last bit of performance. We will also offer some suggestions on what different types of companies should do.

The proposed agenda is as follows:

• Introductions
• An overview of the current hardware options
• Overview of the Computer System
• How data flows through the system
• 32bit vs 64 bit
• What is up with Multiple Cores?
• Opteron vs. CoreDuo vs. Itanium2 vs. Other
• Disk Drive Technologies
• Memory, Memory, & more Memory!
• How do the major ANSYS, Inc. Products Use Computer Systems
• The inside word on ANSYS solve performance
• Legacy code and its performance legacy
• CFD vs. Structural performance issue
• A Review of Parallel Processing
• Windows vs. Linux vs. Unix Flavor X
• Desktop vs. Clusters
• Graphics and ANSYS, Inc. Products
• PADT’s advice on Hardware
• Price vs. Performance
• Dealing with Diminishing Returns
• Lessons Learned
• Hardware Recommendations for the Corporate User and the Cheap User