Intelligent Light announces FIELDVIEW 11.1 with new capabilities for working with large CFD simulations. Scalability, workflow automation, and advanced numerical comparison capabilities back a major new release.

Parallel performance on HPC systems and multi-CPU/multi-core workstations power large simulations in production environments.

Rutherford, NJ (August 29, 2006) –

Intelligent Light continues to address the global need to post-process and visualize the large data generated by sophisticated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) users. FIELDVIEW Version 11.1 delivers powerful new capabilities and is headlined by the availability of a new parallel implementation that delivers scalable post-processing performance to users of multi-CPU/multi-core workstations, large shared memory systems, and cluster computing environments. New data analysis, automation, and data reading capabilities are also a part of this release.

CFD delivers information and insight that is critical to many organizations. FIELDVIEW 11.1 extends the capabilities for in-depth analysis of CFD simulations while maintaining the workflow integration and accessibility that has made FIELDVIEW the high performing, productive, and reliable choice for over a decade.

FIELDVIEW Parallel capabilities have been implemented for high performance on scalable computing hardware. Speedups of 5x on 8 CPUs is typical when post-processing realistic, multigrid CFD simulations on systems using AMD Opteron processors. FIELDVIEW Parallel will reduce turnaround time for simulations and make larger simulations more practical for users than ever before. FIELDVIEW Parallel capabilities are available for users of multi-CPU/multi-core workstations and HPC server users alike. FIELDVIEW 11.1 will support multigrid parallel execution on shared memory systems of up to 4 processor cores without modification or fees. Large processor counts and cluster computing are supported with optional FIELDVIEW Parallel license. New in this release is support for HP-UX running on Itanium processors.

“FIELDVIEW is a powerful tool for working with large, complex simulations. FIELDVIEW 11.1 brings new capabilities to the users that continue to make their real-world production environments more effective, capable, and productive. In the last 3 years we’ve seen the size of data grow by factors of 10-25x,” said Matt Godo, PhD., FIELDVIEW product manager. “Today it is common to see simulations that run 25M-250M cells and require results in hours. FIELDVIEW Parallel addresses the need to be able to run very large simulations without affecting project schedules.”

"HP's most demanding CFD customers have a new choice now that FIELDVIEW 11.1 delivers a high-performance, parallel version for our Itanium/HP-UX servers," said Lee Fisher, worldwide CAE alliances manager at HP. "Intelligent Light has taken a leadership position in architecting FIELDVIEW so that compute intensive calculations like feature extraction may be run in parallel on a large memory HP Integrity server without the delay of moving huge datasets. FIELDVIEW clients provide interactive 3D exploration of the simulation output to yield new insights for improving product design." “By making parallel processing standard within FIELDVIEW, the scalable performance of AMD Opteron™ dual-core processor-based systems is accessible to CFD users of high performance workstations and large processor count HPC installations alike,” said Pat Patla, Director of Server/Workstation Business, AMD. "FIELDVIEW is expected to be a critical application for the CFD community and together with FIELDVIEW ATViewer and the powerful capabilities of AMD Opteron processors we are seeing the expanding footprint of high-impact CFD.”

Numerical dataset comparison tools – Use FIELDVIEW to numerically compare two datasets side by side. FIELDVIEW 11.1 enables the comparison of datasets on completely different grid systems. Functions can be created that span two or more datasets. This capability is used to  Evaluate o Numerically compare the results from two different solvers o Simulation methodologies such as structured vs. unstructured discretization  Validate o Compare simulation vs. experimental data from Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) or other sources  Assess grid refinement requirements  Check convergence progress  Interpolate results to ask “next step” questions using dataset sampling

“The new dataset differencing capabilities allow entirely new numerical comparisons. They are fully integrated into FIELDVIEW automation tools and allow users to encapsulate their knowledge and CFD best practices to choose the best solutions to their problems based upon quantitative metrics,” continues Godo. “We have engine design customers who now run hundreds of simulations with different grids and geometries. Using FIELDVIEW, they post-process the simulations in batch mode overnight and directly compare the results to identify the best design solutions based upon their specific requirements.”

Workflow automation improvements – CFD users are increasingly automating series of tasks to improve their productivity, capacity, and to ensure process quality. FIELDVIEW FVX is used to automate post-processing tasks. FIELDVIEW 11.1 enhances FVX, providing an interface to the PYTHON scripting language. This creates a powerful solution that fits into existing workflows and works with PYTHON based applications such as Phoenix Integration’s ModelCenter™ in automated post-processing.

New plug-in Toolkit and data readers – FIELDVIEW 11.1 includes new plug-in style readers for FLOW3D and CGNS data. The plug-in style architecture is a big advance in facilitating the development and use of readers for new solvers and data formats. Users with in-house codes and proprietary programming routines quickly develop and deploy custom routines and data readers without recompiling.

Explore and share your results using the high performance visualization, presentation, and collaboration capabilities of FIELDVIEW Advanced Technology Viewer. The latest release of FIELDVIEW ATViewer software is available for free download from www.ilight.com.

About Intelligent Light
Intelligent Light, located in Rutherford, New Jersey, was founded in 1984 with a mission to provide the scientific and engineering community with the best possible tools for understanding data and communicating results. The company provides CFD post-processing and big data visualization capability, under the industry leading FIELDVIEW brand, to thousands of HPC users in the aerospace, automotive and general manufacturing industries. Their unique development team is composed of CFD leaders, computer scientists, and visualization experts focused on listening to clients and delivering products that meet their needs. www.ilight.com

FIELDVIEW, FVX, and FIELDVIEW ATViewer are trademarks of Intelligent Light. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

image: CFD simulation post-processed in FIELDVIEW shows a cutaway of a pickup truck and the results of a interior and exterior airflow simulation. The climate control simulation is for evaluation of cabin comfort for vehicle occupants. FIELDVIEW post-processing shows static pressure contours (interior) and streamlines (external/underhood) for rapid communication of airflow characteristics. Credit: FIELDVIEW image courtesy of Intelligent Light. FLUENT simulation results, courtesy of Fluent, Inc.