Oct. 3 — The Supercomputing Centre of Galicia (CESGA) in collaboration with the Technology Centres AIMEN, AIMMAP, and CATIM open to small and medium enterprises in Galicia and northern Portugal are building a state of the art and high capacity supercomputing platform known as CLOUDPYME. This cloud, based on the latest technology, is being developed within the CLOUDPYME project to meet the computational needs of Euro region companies to develop their products.

Numerical simulation is an essential tool for business competitiveness, facilitating the creation of new products with high quality and robustness while reducing development costs. Usually, the company already uses simulation, using its own infrastructure, blocking it for other necessary tasks or limiting the number of trials. This new platform eliminates these drawbacks, opening the possibility for using numerical simulation to companies that do not already use it in their innovation processes, thereby increasing its competitiveness. The platform enables companies to connect to the technological infrastructure installed in the Supercomputing Centre of Galicia and test virtual prototypes in secure and reliable way.

Initially the platform provides access to open source software for CAD and CAE, which adapts to the needs of companies that are developing new products. However, the platform allows the installation of additional software like spreadsheets or data analysis the company needs for its innovation processes.

The platform is supported by a stable and reliable supercomputing infrastructure, consisting of more than 1,200 processors and 31,000 GB disk space, so that the user company can make those virtual testing deemed necessary and they are not limited by lack of computing capacity, to create new competitive products.

Companies can now use CLOUDPYME. The CLOUDPYME project provides an opportunity to easily test this new platform, for a limited time, and without any cost associated to its use. Access can be requested via the Website: http://www.cloudpyme.eu.

CLOUDPYME PROJECT

The CLOUDPYME project is creating a sustainable infrastructure to support Small and Medium Enterprises in the manufacturing sector, to enhance their competitiveness through the use of free software including CAD and CAE, and to help them better design products and processes. The project is developed by CESGA and AIMEN Technology Centre (in Galicia) and the technology centres CATIM and AINMAP (in the North of Portugal) and offers not only computing power but also support associated to the design and numerical simulation of products.

CLOUDPYME is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the second call for projects for Crossborder Cooperation Operational Program Spain-Portugal 2007-2013 (POCTEP).

Collaborating in the project:

* The AIMEN Technology Center is a private non-profit organization that provides research and development in areas such as welding, materials and manufacturing processes and non-destructive testing (NDT). AIMEN is dedicated to improving the manufacturing processes in industry and boost competitiveness. AIMEN Technology Centre participates in numerous R&D projects, in most cases in collaboration with SMEs and large companies in the following areas: Connection Technologies, Laser Technologies, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, Design and Simulation and NDT.

* AIMMAP - ASSOCIAÇÃO DOS INDUSTRIAIS METALÚRGICOS, METALO-MECÂNICOS E AFINS of Portugal, is a private nonprofit established in 1957, and consists of companies or legal entities engaged in metallurgical engineering, electromechanical and similar disciplines, established in Portugal.

* CATIM has a history of over two decades in technical support to the Metallurgical and Metalworking sector, promoting the improvement of the competitiveness of its businesses, focusing on quality and innovation vectors. Currently with about 3,000 active customers and 650 partners, CATIM is looking permanently to adapt to the needs of its partners and customers, the main areas of activity include: Innovation, Quality, benchmarking, Strategic Analysis, Environment, Health and Safety, Machine Safety, Noise Studies, Calibrations, Product Testing, Material Testing, Standards and Training.

* CESGA, the Supercomputing Center of Galicia. CESG's mission is to conduct research in computational science and to boost, spread, and provide services of high performance computing and communications to the communities of Galician researchers and CSIC as well as to those companies or institutions that request it. In this way, CESGA contributes by means of technological innovation to the improvement of the competitiveness of companies. http://www.cesga.es.

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Source: CLOUDPYME