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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News - Platforms:
Intel-Based SGI Altix Servers Facilitate Innovation At P&G
Intel Corp and SGI announced that the Proctor & Gamble Company (P&G) has
recently doubled its deployment of Intel Itanium 2-processor-based SGI Altix
systems used in the manufacturing and packaging design of some of its most
popular consumer products. The products include Folgers coffee, Charmin bath
tissue, Bounty paper towels and Pampers diapers.
The deployment helped save the beauty and health care product company time and
money by enabling P&G to concurrently implement complex design projects.
The Proctor & Gamble Corporate Engineering Technology Group increased the
Altix high-performance computing capacity to a total of 64 Itanium 2
processors and 96 GB of shared memory in January of this year. P&G's
approximately 100-person design group is able to help eliminate costly and
time-consuming physical product testing in developing its manufacturing
equipment and product packaging by conducting more efficient product tests
using "virtual" prototypes.
"In just a few months we've seen dramatic increases in both the speed with
which our engineers are able to work through the design process and the
breadth of perspective they can apply to development projects," said Tom
Lange, associate director of corporate engineering technologies at P&G. "For
instance, by using the Altix system's global shared memory architecture to
access product design data, we were able reduce the time of our stress
analysis testing on the Folgers canister lid by a month. This wouldn't have
been as possible nor as easy had we applied a traditional PC-based cluster
solution to this problem."
With help from the Itanium 2 processor-based SGI Altix system, P&G designers
created the new Folgers AromaSeal Canister. The structural challenges in
replacing metal cans required significant computer-aided engineering (CAE)
analysis and design input. In addition, CAE studies conducted on the Altix
system also have helped designers achieve better-fitting Pampers diapers.
The P&G team also uses the Altix system to run a series of "what-if" scenarios
to help P&G determine how to get maximum manufacturing output for key products
such as Charmin and Bounty. By testing a range of aerodynamic variables,
engineers were able to understand the speed and stability limitations of
processing paper at high speeds. Paper dust and moving sheets are complicated
and expensive to manage and even more expensive to change based on guesses
alone. The team used the results of computer modeling to evaluate settings and
airflow management features in order to help maximize the processing rate
while supporting quality and reliability.
Prior to installing its initial 32-processor Itanium 2 processor-based Altix
system, P&G only had enough computing power to run one complex job per person.
With the newly expanded Altix deployment, P&G designers now have enough
processing and memory capacity for each team member to run multiple what-if
scenarios simultaneously. This enables them to make more informed design
decisions related to product launches from the manufacturing process to final
product packaging.
The SGI Altix system architecture handles large data sets with ease, helping
to enable customers to achieve groundbreaking improvements in manufacturing,
oil and gas exploration, homeland security, earth and environmental sciences
research, and life sciences. Since its introduction in January 2003, the Altix
system has set numerous records for sheer performance, and for its ability to
efficiently run manufacturing, engineering and scientific applications across
hundreds of processors in a Linux* operating environment.
About SGI
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics Inc, is a leader in high-performance
computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology
that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the
21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil
more efficiently, studying global climate or enabling the transition from
analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class
of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices
worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be
found on the Web at www.sgi.com .
About Intel
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of
computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about
Intel is available at www.intel.com .
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