Volvo Cars Selects SGI Origin 3800 Supercomputer for Crash Simulations

          Increased Computing Performance at Volvo Means Safer Cars

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 9 Volvo Cars' department of
development in Gothenburg, Sweden, has invested in an SGI(TM) Origin(TM) 3800
server from SGI in order to increase computing performance when conducting
crash simulations as part of the development of safer cars. The agreement with
Volvo Cars is SGI's biggest deal so far in Sweden and will include consulting
services.

    Volvo Cars' Safety Center, which includes approximately 25 computational
engineers, uses the computer to evaluate construction proposals during the
night. They are then analyzed the following day. With the SGI Origin 3800
system, crash simulations can be done more thoroughly because of an increased
computing performance of more than 30%.

    "Our investment in a new SGI server helps us achieve our long-term
strategy to maintain the leading position in crash simulation and safety,"
says Anders Broo, project manager at Volvo Cars. "Our safety strategy includes
two areas:  high-performance computing in an early phase of the development of
a new car model and real-life testing. The extra computing performance
delivered by SGI Origin 3800 will give us the opportunity to strengthen our
advanced Safety Center in Gothenburg and helps us guarantee that the end
product, the cars, will be dependably safe."

    SGI was chosen as system supplier after an evaluation at Ford in the U.S.,
where criteria were set for price, performance and knowledge. The SGI Origin
3800 server has 128 CPUs, 128GB of memory and two 5TB disks. The code for the
software Radioss has been specially adapted for use on RISC-based CPUs because
crash simulations on RISC-based CPUs are faster than on vector-based CPUs.
This marks one of the first times that this version of Radioss is being used
for crash simulations in car development projects.

    "Volvo's investment in simulation capacity from SGI further strengthens
our position as the market leader within computer simulations," says
Magnus Soderlind, country manager, SGI Sweden. "Our close and global
cooperation with Ford opens up great possibilities for Volvo Cars to create
synergies within simulations, which in turn will lead to shorter lead times
and lower development costs."