Prada Challenge 2003 Team Sets Course for America's Cup Competition Using SGI Technology

Italian Sailing Team Fine-Tunes Yacht Design With SGI High-Performance Computing Solutions

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As Italy's Prada Challenge 2003 team sets course for competing in the America's Cup 2003, their Luna Rossa crew has sailed its sleek yacht, designed using SGI(R) technology, into the Louis Vuitton Cup Semifinals, which began on December 9 in Auckland, New Zealand. The winner of the best-of-seven series emerges to vie for the role of challenger of the America's Cup.

The Italian sailing team first entered the America's Cup competition in 1999. They turned to SGI (NYSE:SGI) to help strengthen the team's competitive edge using SGI(R) high-performance computing and visualization solutions and make the racing yacht Luna Rossa a serious competitor for the America's Cup. The yacht was conceived and built within three years by a design team that used integrated design and engineering technology to simulate the stresses caused by different weather and sea conditions.

Technology Matters in World's Most Prestigious Yacht Race

As a corporate technology partner, SGI continues to support the Prada Challenge 2003 team in their pursuit of the America's Cup. Yacht design poses difficult challenges, with one of the toughest being the complexity of simultaneously analyzing the effects of two distinct variables -- air and water -- on a boat. The integrated digital product development process employed by Prada Challenge 2003 uses an SGI(R) Origin(R) series server and commercial off-the-shelf technology such as PTC Pro/ENGINEER(R) for surfacing and assembly, PTC Pro/MECHANICA(R) for structural analysis, EnSight(R) from CEI for analyzing and communicating engineering and scientific computational results and ICEM/CFD(TM) Engineering software for mesh generation. Working together, these solutions support yacht design development and collaborative information sharing across the entire technical staff and sailing crew, providing a better understanding of the complex product development variables as well as saving time, money and iterations and producing more precise results.

David Eagan, member of the Prada Challenge 2003 Design Team, comments, "When a few seconds can make the difference between winning or losing a race, the yacht design and simulation of how air and water affect that design become very critical. As an essential technology partner, SGI has enabled our strategic and competitive advantage since the beginning. Their high-performance computing solutions deliver the results we need, thus allowing our team to spend less time designing and analyzing and more time testing designs on the water and competing to achieve our ultimate goal -- winning the America's Cup."

About SGI

Celebrating its 20th year, SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and the management of complex data. SGI products, services and solutions enable its technical and creative customers to gain strategic and competitive advantages in their core businesses. Whether being used to design and build safer cars and airplanes, discover new medications and oil reserves, predict the weather, entertain us with thrilling movie special effects or provide mission-critical support for government and defense, SGI systems and expertise are empowering a world of innovation and discovery. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and has offices worldwide.

www.sgi.com

 

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