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Press Release
SGI Solutions Underpin Winning Formula at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 
SGI Supercomputing and Storage Solutions Help Drive Aerodynamic Improvements That Can Make the Difference Between Winning and Losing For Vodafone McLaren Mercedes SUNNYVALE, Calif. and Reading, UK (July 31, 2007) — Having won more than 150 Grands Prix, 11 drivers' and eight constructors' world titles, McLaren is one of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes currently has a 27-point lead in the 2007 constructors' world championship, with its drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso lying first and second in the drivers' standings. Rookie Hamilton also secured consecutive podium finishes in the first nine of the season's races — something no other Formula 1 driver has ever achieved in their first year of racing. "One of the key parameters in differentiating a Formula 1 car is its aerodynamics," explains Jonathan Neale, Managing Director, McLaren Racing. "To optimize the aerodynamics we do a lot of design work and track testing, but computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in particular has been an area of major advance for us in recent years." CFD simulates airflows over a Formula 1 car to help with developing its shape — primarily to create downforce. This helps to provide enhanced grip, particularly during cornering, when the driver relies on grip to carry as much speed as possible through the corner. Another major objective is to minimize drag around the car to maximize its top-end speed. CFD can also help to increase understanding of the behavior of the car in yaw (crosswind, cornering), steer (with the front wheels turned) and roll (ride-height variations). McLaren had been using CFD for a number of years when, in 2005, it appointed SGI as its official supplier for CFD supercomputing, storage and visualization equipment. McLaren's initial purchase included an SGI® Altix® supercomputer, visualization solutions, SGI® InfiniteStorage system and the SGI® InfiniteStorage CXFS™ shared filesystem. The company has subsequently added to this investment in July 2007, with the addition of (and ongoing enhancements to) two further SGI Altix supercomputers, and the recent introduction of the SGI® InfiniteStorage Data Migration Facility (DMF). Transforming development and testing
"The biggest impact of CFD is on our wind tunnel testing program, where the expansion of the SGI platform over the last few years has meant that the quality of components we send to the tunnel is much higher," says Dr. Mark Taylor, Head of CFD, McLaren Racing. "We have a much better knowledge of the impact a component will have on the performance of the car before we wind tunnel test it, with the result that more components coming from CFD end up being used on the car." Managing very large models DMF enables data files that are over a certain age to be automatically taken offline to a tape facility — making the much faster scratch disk space self-managing. The system automatically takes the oldest files off first, but the CFD team is still able to access them from the tape library at any time. "DMF has been a huge benefit, enabling us to look at results from throughout the year — which is very effective in terms of how our program works," continues Taylor. "When we had our second phase of expansion of the SGI platform, in a sense it was proving too successful, because we were generating an even larger amount of high quality results which we wanted to retain for input into the design process. Without DMF we were deleting files that we would have preferred to keep. But when we introduced DMF we were able to retain all the data for the entire year, which has been very effective in building up our design knowledge over the program." "As we develop forward, we'll also be able to look back at the results for our previous cars, which will be important because the rules are remaining quite stable next year, so the current MP4-22 car will feed through a lot into the development of the MP4-23. Also looking forward, as track testing is being reduced, there's even more emphasis on simulation to deliver increased performance. So we would expect that as the testing restrictions continue, the competitive advantage we receive from CFD will only increase." SGI - Innovation for Results™ © 2007 SGI. All rights reserved. SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks of SGI in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Novell is a registered trademark, and SUSE is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
