Silicon Graphics Computers Help Ford Produce Safer Cars

Strategic Insights -

Silicon Graphics computers are playing a crucial role in producing safer vehicles for Ford Motor Company. The company's Cray T90 supercomputers have achieved a record level of sustained performance on production jobs, exceeding one gigaflop (one billion floating point calculations per second) when running RADIOSS, an advanced automobile crash analysis application. This high-performance computing enables Ford to reduce design cycle times and deliver better, safer cars faster.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ford Motor Company is using Silicon Graphics' Cray T90 supercomputers to produce safer cars by achieving record levels of sustained performance on production jobs.
  • The Cray T90 supercomputers have exceeded one gigaflop (one billion floating point calculations per second) when running RADIOSS, an advanced automobile crash analysis application.
  • Ford has received five-star safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for its most popular automobiles and minivans.
  • Silicon Graphics' high-performance computing systems are essential for simulating vehicle crashworthiness and NVH (noise, vibration and harshness).
  • The company's scalable vector supercomputer systems are expected to reach performance levels of multiple tens of teraflops (trillions of floating point calculations per second) in the future.
  • Ford has ordered a third Cray T90 system due to the impressive performance of the first two systems.
  • Silicon Graphics' high-performance computing systems are relied upon by other major automobile manufacturers, including Ford.

Statistics:

  • The Cray T90 supercomputers have achieved a record level of sustained performance of over 1 gigaflop (1 billion floating point calculations per second) on production jobs.
  • Ford has received five-star safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for its most popular automobiles and minivans.
  • Silicon Graphics' high-performance computing systems are expected to reach performance levels of multiple tens of teraflops (trillions of floating point calculations per second) in the future.
  • The Cray SV1, the first member of the Silicon Graphics scalable vector product line, was announced in June 1998.

Sources:

  • "Silicon Graphics Helps Ford Motor Company Produce Safer Cars with High-Performance Computing." PR Newswire, Feb. 17, 1998.
  • "Silicon Graphics Announces New Scalable Vector Supercomputer." Silicon Graphics, Inc., Jun. 1998.