Advanced Visual Systems launches new Engineering Products Group

Business Wire, Dec 26, 1996

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 26, 1996--

New business unit to provide world-class development tools to

engineering-based visualization application providers

Advanced Visual Systems Inc. (AVS) today launched the Engineering Products Group to address the visual application development needs of engineering System Integrators (SIs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and research engineering organizations. The new business unit will extend the company's leading position in providing development environments for building complex engineering visualization applications.

The Engineering Products Group provides software, technical support, training and consulting services specific to the needs of engineering application developers, including those in the aerospace, automotive, chemical process, and semiconductor industries. These developers specialize in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and Process Simulation Control (PSC).

AVS: Enabling Engineers to Visualize the Design and Production

Process

"This new business unit ensures that we have the tools our customers need to develop engineering applications quickly and efficiently," said Ian Curington, Director of the Engineering Products Group. "With the formation of this group, AVS is well positioned to capitalize on the increased emphasis on visualization capabilities in the engineering marketplace," added Curington. For example, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the study of fluid behavior in a specific environment, is one of the fastest growing sectors within CAE. Its applications can be found in almost all industrial sectors, from food processing and water treatment, to automotive aerodynamics, gas turbine design, and aerospace. "We are also seeing significant growth in electromagnetic modeling, and computer chip design software," said Curington.

The company's visualization products-AVS/Express, AVS, Toolmaster, and Gsharp-are already used by leading engineering research organizations and developers. Fast growing industries need new software to sustain growth. Using the pre-fabricated building blocks of AVS/Express, companies can assemble new applications in record time.

World-wide customers in the research arena include large government labs, such as Los Alamos National Laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Argonne National Laboratories, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Large commercial customers include Boeing Computer Services, Dow Corning, Dow Chemical, Lockheed-Martin, Hughes Aircraft, Rockwell International, Sikorsky Aircraft, Goodyear, Texas Instruments, Intel, Motorola, and Fairchild Space and Defense. International customers include British Aerospace, Unilever, and Pilkingtons in the UK; Ferrari Formula 1, ENEL, and CIRA in Italy; ONERA, CEA, and Aereospatiale in France; Ericsson and SAAB in Sweden; DLR and Daimler Benz in Germany; and Hitachi, Toyota, Fuji Electric Company, and Toshiba Electronics in Japan. Engineering application developer customers include Technology Modeling Associates, Hewlett Packard Company, Grumman Aerospace, Sandia Labs, Ford, McDonnell Douglas, AEA Technology plc in the UK, and ADAM NET and Otsuka Electronics in Japan.

AVS/Express: Accelerates and Eases Engineering Application

Development

Advanced Visual Systems software products provide a visual programming environment to radically reduce application development time and allow anyone, from scientists to software developers to end-users, to convert data from a variety of sources into insightful, interactive 2D and 3D visualizations.

Technology Modeling Associates of Sunnyvale, Ca., used AVS/Express in the development of their product, TMA Visual. TMA Visual allows engineers designing integrated circuits to understand the effects of device physics on circuit performance. "Success of new circuit designs relies on understanding these effects at the 'deep micron' level, and now with AVS/Express-developed TMA Visual, design physicists can see the results of simulation in 3D," said Tony Slocum, manager of the System and Utilities Branch, Engineering and Development at Technology Modeling Associates. "Thanks to AVS/Express-based TMA Visual," added Tony, "engineers visualize data for analysis and then can modify the resulting plots to gain new perspectives. It gives us a distinct competitive edge."

"The main reason that we use AVS software is that it gives us a portable, full function graphics renderer and also a lot of visualization techniques that we can make use of," said David Clayworth of UK-based AEA Technology, one of the largest suppliers of computational fluid dynamics software and consulting in the world. AEA software, which can simulate almost any type of fluid flow and heat transfer process, uses AVS graphics and visualization capabilities to build their post processor so that users get the best possible viewing and animation tools to interpret their results. "If we had attempted to write this capability ourselves, it would have taken many years of effort. By using AVS products, we were able to develop a usable, complete toolkit in only 18 months," added Clayworth.