Ansys v12 Parallel Processing Enhancements 1

[seymours2571]

Hello All,

I just met with an inside Ansys sales person and he mentioned that the new version of Ansys v12 along with the newest version of the Intel processor will allow for parallel processing benifits beyond 8 processors.

According to the Ansys white paper "Obtaining Optimal Performance in ANSYS 11.0" available on the Ansys support site at the following link:

http://www1.ansys.com/customer/cont...mal Performance in ANSYS 11 - White Paper.pdf

the benifits of parallel processing typically top out for Ansys FEA at 8 processors. It attributes this to portions of the code that are still single threaded. However, according to this sales person the new version of Ansys and the newest chip from Intel will allow parallel processing benifits to be extended way beyond 8 processors. When I asked further he stated that Ansys has partnered with Intel and the new architecture allows for more portions of the FEA code to be "crunhed" in parallel. He continued by stating that the parallel benifits will be on par with CFX, which apparently has always benifited from multiple processors beyond 8.

I was just curious if anyone else has heard this and if so could you point me to a website that may give some more information. We are looking to upgrade our number crunching computer.

Thanks,

steve

 

[Baldy217]

You could try downloading the V12 Beta and testing it yourself.

 

[Flattie]

Does anyone know how to get in on the 12.0 beta? Where is this download you speak of?

 

[Baldy217]

Through the ANSYS Customer Portal. I'm not sure if they are still offering the beta download, as they should be close to releasing it.

http://www1.ansys.com/customer/

 

[cbrn]

Hi,
I suppose you must be registered as a "beta tester user" in order to be allowed for such a thing like a beta download. A "common" user such as me is not allowed to dowload v.12 beta, there is not even the link.

regards

 

[Baldy217]

Hi,
I suppose you must be registered as a "beta tester user" in order to be allowed for such a thing like a beta download. A "common" user such as me is not allowed to dowload v.12 beta, there is not even the link.

regards

Maybe I'm getting mixed up. I know they released a beta of CFX and Fluent 12, but maybe not ANSYS V12.

Sorry

 

[seymours2571]

Okay, just attended an online presentation regarding parallel processing with Ansys. According to the presenter there is a new chip from Intel that will be coming soon that will allow greater scalability for multiple processing. He said it wasn't necessarily specific to CFX or Ansys, but that it was accross the board.

According to the presentation, the AMD chip is more scalable when more and more processors are used to solve the problem. However, the AMD chips are slower at solving the problem than the Intel chips. Therefore, when taking all into consideration pertaining to problems solving across 8 processors or more the two chip designs, Intel vs. AMD, are similar. However, that only applies to problems distributed accross several processors. For signle processor problems Intel is far better.

From what I understood, when Intel comes out with their new chip not only will the chip crunch the numbers faster, but it will have much improved scalability over multiple processors. Thereby making the Intel chip the better choice for multi-processor solutions.

Hope this helps,

Steve

 

[cbrn]

Thank you Seymours2571.

What you report here throws more light upon "voices" I already heard about that.
It seems to confirm that AMD still has a gap to fill before it can claim to be "the most powerful PC processor", at least as regards floating-point operations, a field where it is well-known Intel is the leader, at least for "PC-workstations" processors (it's a pity Digital Alpha processors have been discontinued...).
Also, this is coherent with the fact that AMD has designed its architecture from the start keeping in mind two main factors: integer operation and scalability. Whether float-operation was a real disaster at the start, nowadays thing have evolved positively, but the gap from Intel seems however hard to be completely overcome...
Bearing in mind that Ansys charges for a separate license beyond two "processors", IMHO for a standard "non-parallel processing" license of Ansys the best choice in PC is still Intel by far.

Regards

 

[Amiga500]

That "new" Intel chip is on the market in desktop form now since Nov '08... (its called Core i7)

The Xeon version is due out sometime Q2 2009 I believe.