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Grid Leader Platform Computing Accelerates Product Quality and Safety for Industrial Manufacturing, Aerospace and Automotive Firms

Posted on: Monday, 3 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

TORONTO, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Extending its leadership position in enterprise grid computing software solutions, Platform Computing announced a global Industrial Manufacturing Acceleration Center(TM) and new grid-enabled solutions to help manufacturing, automotive and aerospace customers enable their infrastructures and applications for grid computing. According to independent market analyst IDC, the manufacturing sector will spend $2.6 billion on grid computing by 2006.

Platform's Industrial Manufacturing Acceleration Center(TM) provides industry-specific solutions for Mechanical Computer-Aided Engineering (MCAE), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), IT consolidation projects, license optimization and online/batch job acceleration. Platform works closely with key industry partners, including IBM, HP, CapGemini, CSC, T-Systems, and Science+Computing, to provide comprehensive solutions that produce tangible benefits during the complete life cycle of manufacturing goods.

"As grid computing continues its upward climb as a high priority IT investment, more and more companies are turning to Platform to provide real, ROI-based business solutions," said Songnian Zhou, CEO, Platform Computing. "Our experience in the manufacturing industry dates back over 12 years with Pratt and Whitney, Boeing, General Motors, Caterpillar and GE Aircraft Engines, all of which have leveraged grid technology to accelerate simulation, crash testing and PLM applications, thereby improving product quality and safety."

Platform provides grid solutions to the world's largest automotive and aerospace companies, including Airbus, Ford, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Porsche, Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies. Recently, customers such as BAE Systems or Magna Steyr have used Platform solutions to help their engineering and design groups to get more work done in less time using their existing IT infrastructures. Platform grid solutions are also being used for IT consolidation initiatives and for automating line of business applications.

"With this announcement, we are solidifying our solution commitment to the industrial manufacturing market including collaboration with leading application vendors, to help customers shorten design cycles, bring products to market faster and reduce expensive quality errors," said Merten Slominsky, VP, Industrial Manufacturing, Platform Computing. "Our solutions are in production with leading automotive and aerospace firms in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, and in many cases have replaced unscalable, homegrown software in order to significantly reduce production time and cost."

"IBM and Platform Computing are delivering production grid solutions to help automotive and aerospace companies do more work in less time on their existing IT infrastructure," said Scott Hopkins, general manager, IBM Product Lifecycle Management. "Working with key application providers such as Dassault Systemes, IBM and Platform Computing can help firms such as MAGNA STEYR shorten the product development cycle, deliver higher quality products, while significantly reducing operating costs."

Platform Solutions for Industrial Manufacturing

Platform's production-proven grid solutions, including the Platform LSF(R) Family of products and Platform IT Analytics, are used by leading industrial manufacturing companies to achieve significant operational and business results by allowing more work to be done, in less time, on the existing IT infrastructure. To simplify grid deployment, Platform has grid-enabled over 100 industry applications from vendors such as ANSYS, ABAQUS, Dassault Systemes, Engineous Software, Fluent, LSTC, and MSC Software.

Platform also announced five grid-enabled solution sets that support major functions within the manufacturing enterprise. These include:

* Platform MCAE Application Acceleration Solution: Accelerates MCAE

applications by improving the utilization of existing HPC clusters and

harnessing idle compute cycles. Jobs can flow between remote locations,

while local autonomy of resources is maintained, minimizing the impact

to end-users.

* Platform Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Acceleration Solution:

Improves the performance of tessellation, rendering, and clash

detection applications to shorten design cycles. Provides a

collaborative Web portal that allows engineers, suppliers, and partners

to use grid resources in a seamless and transparent manner.

* Platform IT Consolidation Acceleration Solution: Delivers the

necessary tools, consulting and methodology to make sound, fact-based

decisions for consolidating business applications and provides enhanced

visibility into the IT infrastructure to support operational and

business objectives.

* Platform License Optimization Solution: Reduces license costs and

improves throughput by creating a shared license pool that quickly and

dynamically allocates licenses based on priority and ownership.

Integrates easily with an existing MacroVision license management

infrastructure to optimize license usage across multiple compute

clusters.

* Platform Online and Batch Job Acceleration Solution: Lowers

operational costs while maintaining or improving existing service

levels, by providing tools to re-host online and batch applications

from expensive mainframes and multi-processor servers to a lower cost

commodity infrastructure.

According to independent market analyst IDC, grid computing in the manufacturing sector is projected to be a $2.6 billion market opportunity by 2006. IDC projects the total grid technology market opportunity at more than $13 billion by 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 83 percent. Grid technology is the foundation for emerging computing models including on demand computing, adaptive enterprise, outsourcing, and utility computing.

For more information, please visit Platform's Industrial Manufacturing online press kit at: http://www.platform.com/newsevents/presskits/imsolutions.asp

About Platform

Platform Computing's intelligent, practical enterprise grid software solutions help organizations optimize IT resources to Accelerate Intelligence(TM). We plan, build, run and manage grids that link IT to core business objectives, and help our customers improve service levels, reduce costs and enhance business performance. With industry-leading partnerships and a strong commitment to standards, we are at the forefront of grid software development, propelling over 1,600 clients toward powerful insights that create real, tangible business value. For more please visit http://www.platform.com/.

Platform Computing

CONTACT: Michelle Michalak of Platform Computing, +1-905-948-4660, or1-877-710-4522, michalak@platform.com; or Matt Sullivan of FitzGeraldCommunications, +1-202-973-2977, msullivan@fitzgerald.com, for PlatformComputing

Web site: http://www.platform.com/http://www.platform.com/newsevents/presskits/imsolutions.asp

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