Today, I’d like to welcome Matthias Stiller, CEO and Head of Development at PI-VR for a guest post:

__

For those who wonder what VRED is: VRED is a highly specialized software provided by the PI-VR GmbH, a software vendor based in Germany. PI-VR develops innovative software solutions for 3D real-time visualization, Virtual Prototyping and offline image production which are used over the complete life cycle of product development: from design over engineering to marketing and sales. Being especially progressive software, VRED can be used in different application areas for real-time high-end 3D visualizations and offers the possibility to quickly and realistically compile high-quality illustrations of CAD data. The instant and interactive visual feedback, innovative and easy-to-use tools as well as the implementation of new technologies culminate in impressive results and very fast and effective working processes.

In other words: VRED is the ideal software for benchmarking Fujitsu CELSIUS Workstations.

When Fujitsu came up with their new ultra high-end workstation in April 2012, we decided to test the CELSIUS R920 Workstation with our latest software release VRED 5.5

The question simply is how the VRED application performance will improve with the new hardware technology. Our goal always is to minimize render time at best image quality and maximum hardware resource utilization.

So this is what we did: We installed the software on the previous generation workstation flagship CELSIUS R670 (with two Intel® Xeon X5765 processors each offering 6 processor cores running at 3.06 Ghz) as well as on the new generation dual processor flagship CELSIUS R920 (with the two fastest processors you can get from the current platform). The Intel® Xeon® E5-2687W which offers 8 (!) processor cores running at 3.1 Ghz). And guess what, while running the test the software totally maxed out all processor cores while producing the attached image in FullHD resolution (1920×1080). Never has a workstation been more busy to perform a job in VRED. In a head to head comparison the Fujitsu CELSIUS R920 excels and finished rendering the complete image after astonishing 69 seconds while the CELSIUS R670 finished after respectable 100 seconds. That’s 31% percent faster!

We are really excited about the new generation of Fujitsu CELSIUS workstations.

The cooperation with our partners at Fujitsu and Intel make sure that our software utilizes all available multi-core power to shorten image production time even more. That’s especially important for our customers that need to produce more images in shorter time allowing them to put more creativity into their image compositions.

Matthias Stiller

PS: A complete overview of benchmarks can be seen at http://www.pi-vr.de/info/benchmark.html

The first ever company run in Augsburg was held on 8th May 2012 and it did not disappoint. Fujitsu had a presence of 169 people out of the 3,000 participants, an excellent turn out for our company, showing ourselves as a modern and ambitious firm. We were overwhelmed with the number of people wanting to take part in the name of Fujitsu. The race was 5km in length, taking place in and around Wittelsbacher Park right near the center of the city.

Fujitsu took 3^rd place in terms of participant numbers, winning a tour of local radio station, RT1’s premises. Our sumo wrestler, Geisha and samurai warrior grabbed 1^st place for best dressed as a trio, drawing much attention from runners and the many supporters alike, a very good effort. Our very own Jürgen Klein earned a respectable 9^th place in the race with a time of 00:17:30,1, the best performer for Fujitsu, excellent considering 1^st place managed an unbelievable 00:16:17,9.

This turned out to be a fun day for all involved and a great advert for the togetherness and reputation of our company. Congratulations and Thank you to all involved for making this a great day.

The SSD Form Factor Working Group, which Fujitsu is driving together with four other promoters, has defined a new common connector standard for various types of standard form factor (SFF) SSDs (2.5”/3.5” drives).

While SATA and SAS attached SFF SSDs are addressing mainstream SSD performance, PCI-Express (PCIe) SSDs are used when applications require lowest latency and highest bandwidth. So far, PCIe-SSDs always sit in a computer’s PCIe slot which means they are less service friendly than mainstream 2.5”/3.5” HDD/SSD drives. Practically speaking, you need to open the server box to plug or unplug PCIe cards, and even shut down the system before opening the box. Of course, staff in a data center do not have the time to worry about such complexity.

Luckily, those days will soon be over. The new SFF connector is fully backward compatible with today’s SATA and SAS based SFF drives, and supports all industry SSD standards currently emerging: SCSI Express, NVMe, SATA-Express, and even ML-SAS. It was a major challenge to unify the interests of all these industry groups, so the SSD Form Factor Working Group is happy to have full support from the SCSI Trade Association (STA), SATA-IO Group, and also the PCI SIG in this effort.

To find out more, you can read the official press release: http://www.ssdformfactor.org/docs/spec_1_0_press_release.pdf.

Take all your skills, all your imagination, all your energy…and start imagining. A small idea may come into your mind. Let the idea grow. Let it become a bigger idea. Let it become an idea which inspires you and fills you with energy. In your mind, take it as far as it will go, even beyond the limits of what you thought possible, affordable or even reasonable. Talk about your idea to the people closest to you. If they are inspired too, or even willing to help you, then you have most likely found something worth aiming for. What’s stopping you from putting it into practice? Is it down to having the tools? Is it down to money? Things don’t always have to be too difficult or too expensive.  Take a look at the videos below to find out more…

Today , I am happy to present another guest post from Peter Weiß. He is Head of Business at  StarkStrom Augsburg from the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg. Here is Peters post:
–

Already in the initial stages of our project, Fujitsu’s Superior CELSIUS workstation has proved to be the perfect partner. As we progress further into the project, the advantages of this system are still clear for all to see.

The Fujitsu workstation processes simulations and calculations in a matter of minutes, which goes far beyond the limits of basic PC-systems’ capabilities.

We were, therefore, able to adapt the size of the tubular lattice frame in the CAD to the format of the outer casing and rapidly form the structure using FEM. This greatly facilitated our work.

In addition the elaborate and complex layout of cables in electric racing cars is gradually becoming easier to manage, with the ability to see and edit the entire vehicle on big screens, without constant jerking.

Important new applications will soon arise as a result of using simulation programs for the racing car: The experiences from testing and racing will be used to test and configure our next vehicle, before the first component is produced. In addition as such programs put computers under a lot of strain, we are very happy to have such an outstanding partner in Fujitsu. On behalf of the entire Starkstrom-Augsburg-team we would like to thank you all very much for the friendly support!