Hawker de Havilland Chooses MSC.Software's Flexible High Performance Computing System for Engineering Analysis

Business Wire, May 23, 2002

Business Editors

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2002

Cost-Effective Solution Delivers Significant Computational Performance

to Leading Australian Aerospace Company

MSC.Software Corp. (NYSE: MNS), the leading global provider of simulation software, services and systems, today announced that Australian aerospace company Hawker de Havilland (HdH) has chosen to replace their existing UNIX system with the MSC.Linux distribution to power their new computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis workstation-cluster.

"Our work with Hawker de Havilland is an excellent example of the ways in which we can provide customers with all the software analysis tools and infrastructure, services and systems needed to optimize their product lifecycle management processes and help them solve problems in less time and for less cost," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "Companies world wide are exploring the increased opportunities that come with deploying cost-effective high performance computing system delivered by MSC.Software. We are working hard to execute on our strategy and provide all of our customers with software, services and systems offerings in the same way we have with HdH."

To run their MSC.Nastran and MSC.Patran software applications, MSC.Software integrated five new HP X4000 workstations containing a total of seven CPUs. These machines were integrated by MSC.Linux to operate individually or as a single 7 CPU (5 node) cluster, working together to perform computationally intensive analysis when required. The MSC.Linux distribution contains a batch queuing system (Open PBS) to enable jobs to be centrally submitted and then automatically run on whichever processors are available.

By implementing a flexible MSC.Linux-based solution, MSC.Software has enabled HdH to have state of the art standalone workstation access while enabling all the hardware to be clustered together to undertake large analysis jobs in parallel when desired, resulting in extended computing utility and greatly reduced time and cost for large analysis projects.

"We were attracted to the MSC.Software solution as it gave us the flexibility to run five standalone workstations whilst also being able to cluster them together to solve large problems when necessary," said Dr. Tim Coates of Hawker de Havilland. "This meant for only a fraction more than the cost of the workstations alone we were also able to secure high level compute solver power."

For more information on MSC.Linux and MSC.Software's High Performance Computing solutions, please visit http://www.msclinux.com.

About MSC.Software Corporation

MSC.Software (NYSE: MNS) is the leading global provider of simulation software, with related services and systems, that helps companies make money, save time and reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC.Software works with thousands of companies in hundreds of industries to develop better products faster by utilizing information technology, software, services and systems. MSC.Software employs more than 1500 people in 22 countries. For additional information about MSC.Software's products and services, please visit www.mscsoftware.com.

About Hawker de Havilland

Hawker de Havilland, acquired by Boeing in late 2000, designs and manufactures commercial and military aircraft aerostructure components. From plants at Fishermens Bend, Melbourne, and Bankstown, Sydney, it makes parts for most Boeing aircraft types, including the 737, 747, 757 and 777, as well as Lockheed Martin, Bombardier, and Airbus aircraft. Hawker de Havilland is the designated primary service centre for the repair, modification and overhaul of Boeing-manufactured composite and metal-bonded aircraft approvals from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration.