Digital versus Physical Modeling

This article in PD&D does an honest assessment of the use of software for digital modeling- its advantages and its limitations. What it misses is the fact that you CAN have systems that allow you to do full VR immersion and handle the parts.. without too much crazy investment. Truth is, nothing is ever going to replace that final physical prototype build- but modeling can eliminate many iterations of physical builds. If you had one of those installed, would you really stop building parts to see interactions, or would this save you one more round of prototype building?

Microsoft HPC manufacturing vertical

Microsoft, who has an HPC platform offering, has a vertical focused on manufacturing- with special emphasis on automotive, Oil&Gas and Aerospace. What I cant tell is if they are focusing on those areas because that is where their initial contacts already were, or if they really believe those are the best targets. Since HPC is strong in many other areas of manufacturing ( Proctor and Gamble immediately springs to mind), I hope they are not missing the boat. Let's hope they just need to grow in this area and are open to supporting lots of new areas of manufacturing. If you are a manufacturer in an area outside of their current focus, contact them and let us know how they respond.

Sun focuses some attention on the Manufacturing Vertical

Sun, who is pushing the OpenSolaris distribution for use in High Performance Computing Applications, has announced a Manufacturing Vertical Focus, especially for folks involved in EDA or MCAE. If you are an EDA or MCAE person, let us know what you think of their approach.