Coventry, UK - 21 July 2003, Altair Engineering Ltd, a global leader in product design consulting, engineering software and high performance computing technology, has been granted exclusivity by NEC High Performance Computing Europe for the provision of Linux cluster solutions to the United Kingdom and Ireland manufacturing industry. The organisations will work closely together on the marketing, sales, implementation and support of this leading price/performance solution. The parties will combine their extensive application and hardware expertise to deliver a highly optimised turnkey solution.

Dr Royston Jones, Managing Director of Altair Engineering Ltd said, "Altair has deep knowledge of the manufacturing space through offering its comprehensive design toolbox, Altair HyperWorks. This suite contains unique software technologies which accelerate the virtual design process (e.g. optimisation and robust design). Altair's workload management and job scheduler software, PBS Pro, will ensure maximum utilisation of the Linux hardware. The turnkey solution arrives on the client's site containing these technologies and other third party software such as crash simulation (e.g. LS-DYNA) or computational fluid dynamics (e.g. Fluent)".

Dr Jones added, "Two years ago we promoted a vision to hardware vendors of a turnkey software/hardware solution to facilitate rapidly emerging technologies in computer aided engineering software and Linux cluster hardware architectures. Since this time, we have pioneered the implementation of these tools. Ford, for example, achieved return on investment from Altair PBS Pro after just 10 months. Furthermore, NEC has a solid track record in supplying Linux clusters to major manufacturing clients. For instance, Volkswagen has acknowledged NEC’s expertise in system setup and support. With the maturing of the hardware and software technologies, we can accommodate the explosion in virtual design which is now possible. In developing Altair OptiBox, the integrated cluster solution, NEC was clearly identified as a strategic partner to facilitate our vision. They not only provide a highly competitive price/performance but, importantly, minimise the total cost of ownership through their effective support infrastructure. Having strategically placed virtual design at the heart of a company’s process, reliability is paramount".

Dr Andreas Findling, strategic business unit leader for cluster solutions at NEC HPC Europe agreed, "We are excited about the new partnership with Altair. The combination of Altair’s software technology, the reliable NEC HPC Linux environment and powerful hardware from NEC means we can create a solution that perfectly matches the needs of the UK and Irish manufacturing industry."

About Altair Engineering Limited
Through engineering, consulting and high performance computing technologies, Altair Engineering Ltd increases innovation in manufacturing. Altair Engineering Ltd is the UK subsidiary of Altair Engineering Inc, founded in 1985, which serves more than 1,300 clients around the globe. Altair's unparalleled knowledge and expertise in product development and manufacturing extend throughout Europe, North America and Asia. Altair specialises in the development of high-end, open CAE software solutions for modelling, visualisation, optimisation and process automation. PBS Pro, the commercial version of the Portable Batch System, was acquired by Altair in March 2003. Altair OptiBox installations consist of Altair PBS Pro, Altair HyperWorks, additional third party software technologies, system performance monitoring tools and NEC Linux cluster hardware. For more information visit Altair at http://www.uk.altair.com

About NEC HPCE GmbH
NEC High Performance Computing Europe GmbH, created in February 2003 serves as a distributor of NEC HPC solutions. It inherited the NEC ESS business of high-end users primarily in the areas of meteorology/climate, aerospace, automobiles and research. The total number of orders received for the SX Series exceeds 180, a solid foundation for HPC business. The new company is expanding its business to provide a wide range of high performance computing solutions. Besides the SX Series, it distributes high performance servers equipped with Intel’s 64-bit general purpose CPU Itanium®2 and supercomputing clusters made of standard PC components. These solutions are targeted at the science and technology market. NEC HPCE GmbH provides systems integration services, for other related platform products, such as network and peripheral devices, according to customers' needs and market requirements. A variety of support services such as hardware-lease, system operation, application tuning/analysis support, and also education and training will be offered. NEC supercomputers are used for simulation tasks in industry and research worldwide. NEC HPCE GmbH, has its headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, and has more than 70 employees. There are offices in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Lugano, Stuttgart and Milan. For additional information please visit the NEC home page at http://www.hpce.nec.com