Hewlett-Packard Co. said the Defense Department will use an HP supercomputer for advanced weapon design research. The HP Cluster Platform 4000 system will be installed in September at the Aeronautical Systems Center Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC) based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The 10-teraflop system will enable the DoD to accelerate its research and collaboration on advanced weapons concepts, improve and speed modification programs, enhance simulation programs and enable more efficient tests and evaluations.

The HP supercomputer is a 1,024-node Cluster Platform 4000 based on HP ProLiant DL145 servers with AMD Opteron processors running the Linux operating system. A high-speed Voltaire InfiniBand interconnect is used with HP's XC System Software providing cluster management capability.

In addition to the HP Cluster Platform 4000 production system, a smaller eight-node development system is also being deployed at ASC and an additional 46-node development cluster will be installed at Arnold Engineering Development Center, Arnold Air Force Base near Tullahoma, Tenn.

"HP's Unified Cluster Portfolio will enable the Department of Defense to gain unprecedented levels of insight into its future demands," said Tom Johnson, HP's director of worldwide defense solutions. "The simulations and test protocols enabled by this supercomputer solution will be among the most sophisticated in the world, powering advances in access, integration and collaboration across the agency's research efforts."Missler Software, France's second largest provider of CAD/CAM solutions, develops and distributes the TopSolid and GOelan product lines, primarily targeted at the mechanical manufacturing industry. As part of a periodic process, the company recently conducted a complete re-assessment of all its technology sourcing decisions in order to ensure they are employing the most advanced technology available to maintain the robust functionality and high quality their customers have come to expect. During this re-assessment Parasolid emerged as the clear industry leader over its primary competitors. As a result, Missler Software will continue to use the UGS-developed software as the 3D geometry foundation for its TopSolid and GOelan applications, as it has for the past several years.

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