AMERICA'S CUP DEFENDER AND CHALLENGERS RELY ON SGI TECHONOLOGY.As the world's preeminent sailing competition enters the Louis Vuitton Cup
The Louis Vuitton Cup is one of the most famous and prestigious competitions in the sport of yachting because of its relationship to the America's Cup. Challenger Races semifinal round, SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : SGI) today announced the company's high-performance computing High-speed computing, which typically refers to supercomputers used in scientific research. and visualization solutions are being used by leading America's Cup America's Cup: see sailing. America's Cup Most prestigious trophy in international yachting competition. First offered under another name in Britain in 1851, the cup was won easily by the America from New York and subsequently became known as the 2000 syndicates to speed and optimize yacht development, share design information between engineering and sailing teams and analyze race data. Traditionally, syndicates used more conventional means to design yachts, methods that included testing one-quarter-size models in large wind tunnels and towing tanks-a process that proved time-consuming and inflexible. Today, under tight deadlines and exacting specifications for vessel length, weight and sail area, computing solutions based on SGI scalable server and visual computing The use of computers for 3D modeling and animation. See visualization. technologies are being used by America's Cup defender Team New Zealand Team New Zealand (TNZ) is an America's Cup sailing team which is based in Auckland and represents New Zealand. The team officially represents the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and they have become a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the , and top challengers Team Prada and America True, for the initial design concept and a less expensive, streamlined digital process that enables more iterations with greater accuracy. Syndicates share development results across the team in the form of 3D computer graphics that both technical and nontechnical team members can understand. As the competition continues, SGI solutions are being used to refine key boat components like the hull, keel, rudder and sails and analyze results to modify race tactics. "We're proud SGI solutions are playing a critical role in this renowned international sailing competition," said John R. "Beau" Vrolyk, senior vice president, Product Group, SGI. "With the intense level of competition and rigorous standards involved, top America's Cup 2000 syndicates are looking to SGI technology to provide them a crucial competitive advantage. These are the same computing solutions used time and again by leading aerospace and automotive companies around the world to build better products, faster." Team New Zealand: Defending the Cup Team New Zealand, which utilized SGI technology on the way to winning the 1995 competition, is making extensive use of the company's solutions in support of its bid to retain the cup. For its current development program, the syndicate is focusing on two major applications of technology: digital boat design and collaboration. Team members use SGI servers and visual workstations running computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics The numerical approximation to the solution of mathematical models of fluid flow and heat transfer. Computational fluid dynamics is one of the tools (in addition to experimental and theoretical methods) available to solve (CFD CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics ) software to compute, process and visualize simulated air flow over components like the sails and mast and water flow over the keel, rudder and bulb. This process allows the syndicate to make more informed, timely and accurate design decisions. Engineers share the results with the team's sailors, teaching them to improve the boat's performance based on its design parameters. "When we won the America's Cup in 1995, SGI technology played an important role," said Tom Schnackenberg, design coordinator for Team New Zealand. "As we prepare for our defense, we've expanded the use of SGI solutions throughout the design and collaboration process. This has allowed us to shorten and improve our development cycle and broaden the scope of team members who benefit from the results." Team Prada: Integrating Digital Design Italy's Team Prada, a Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Races semifinalist in its first America's Cup competition, also uses SGI solutions for yacht development and sharing information across the team. One of the toughest challenges in yacht design is the complexity of simultaneously analyzing the effects of two distinct variables, air and water, on a boat. The integrated digital process employed by Team Prada-based on SGI servers and visual workstations and COTS (commercial off-the-shelf Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) is a term for software or hardware, generally technology or computer products, that are ready-made and available for sale, lease, or license to the general public. ) technology-transparently ties the various development steps. As a result, team engineers are able to move smoothly and efficiently through design stages that were once inflexible. Ultimately, they can provide a better understanding of the complex variables, saving time, money and iterations and producing more precise results. The insight gained from this streamlined cycle is then shared among all team members, improving collaboration among technical staff and sailors. "If you test something in a towing tank or a wind tunnel, you get an answer, but you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why. You can't see water or air flow," said Dave Egan, design coordinator for Team Prada. "Now we use SGI technology to create computer simulations that show us why our boats perform in a certain way. Computer analysis touches every aspect of the yacht. "When the wind died in one of our training sessions, I gave lectures on the dock about hydrodynamics hydrodynamics: see mechanics. Hydrodynamics The study of fluids in motion. The study is based upon the physical conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy. and aerodynamics aerodynamics, study of gases in motion. As the principal application of aerodynamics is the design of aircraft, air is the gas with which the science is most concerned. using visualization models created by SGI technology," Egan continued. "When sailing resumed, the crew members were moving around the boat, hanging off the deck and peering under the hull looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. laminar flow laminar flow Fluid flow in which the fluid travels smoothly or in regular paths. The velocity, pressure, and other flow properties at each point in the fluid remain constant. and other phenomena. The power of visualization is truly unparalleled." America True: Refining Race Tactics San Francisco's America True, the first coed syndicate and another Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Races semifinalist, is using SGI technology to analyze yacht performance and refine its race tactics. The team places markers on its sails and captures digital video of its boat during runs. Using a solution based on SGI visual workstations, America True engineers time lock the captured visual data to performance data and compare the shape and positions of the sails with the boat's movement. As a result, the syndicate can confidently make changes to airfoil design and train sailors to alter their racing tactics in order to optimize the boat's performance. "SGI technology allows us to evaluate multiple variables, like wind conditions, boat speed and crew performance, then synchronize the data and focus on those areas that significantly improve our yacht's performance," said Dawn Riley, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and Captain of America True. America True is The San Francisco Yacht Club challenge for America's Cup 2000. Led by CEO and Captain Dawn Riley, it is the first coed America's Cup team managed by a woman (www.americatrue.org). About SGI SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion