AVL develops and improves all kinds of powertrain systems, and is an expert partner to the automotive industry. AVL offers high-tech solutions in three main areas:

• Easy-to-use and accurate simulation tools for the engine, powertrain and vehicle development process
• Instrumentation and test systems
• Development of powertrain systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and even racing cars

To run its simulation software on the best computing platforms available, AVL-AST has chosen Bull NovaScale clusters both for its own computing requirements and for porting and certifying its simulation software suite, best known for the AVL FIRE application.

The new Bull NovaScale cluster - equipped with the 64-bit architecture of Intel's Xeon 5100 and 5300 processors - satisfies the need to support very large computational models. This allows the engine and automotive developers to achieve the advances needed today, by increasing the resolution of their computational models and the accuracy of simulations.

"The combination of a powerful and flexible Bull NovaScale cluster 400 with leading-edge AVL Fire software will give the automotive industry the ideal solution to address its ever-increasing needs. Bull - working with AVL - is setting the pace in HPC and really demonstrating a commitment to sustaining world-class industries", stated Benoit Hallez, Director of Bull's HPC business unit.

New software tools are becoming much more accurate when it comes to simulating the real-world behaviour of finished products. As a result, 'virtual prototypes' are gradually starting to replace their physical counterparts. This is a challenge which AVL can respond to by supplying a wide range of simulation tools with co-simulation capability - from IC engine combustion to entire vehicle thermal management systems, and from piston and piston ring dynamics to vehicle optimization of fuel consumption and emissions.