Inspur and NEC Deutschland Launch HPCaaS for Automotive Design Simulation in Europe 

STUTTGART, Germany, June 1, 2022 — Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, and NEC Deutschland, an HPC solutions provider for scientific and engineering applications, have joined forces to provide an HPC as a Service (HPCaaS) solution for computer-aided engineering (CAE) to auto manufactures in Europe. Inspur and NEC seek to bring infrastructure resilience and energy efficiency to high-performance computing (HPC) via on-demand usage, deep integration, and advanced cooling technologies.

In Automotive R&D, design verification is the most lengthy and expensive process in vehicle development, including real-life collision testing. However, an HPC cluster powering CAE applications can virtualize this process. Simulations can be performed faster, and without the expense of damaging real vehicles. The joint HPCaaS solution with Inspur-powered hardware and NEC system integration and implementation, allows for precise CAE simulations, such as vehicle crash simulations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), structural mechanics, wind resistance, wind noise, thermal management, fatigue durability, welding simulation, stamping analysis, noise analysis, etc. This solution can provide more flexible and scalable computing resources and efficiency to meet the needs of customers’ on-demand requirements.

The use of Inspur’s leading HPC servers for automotive CAE, greatly improve performance, lower energy consumption, and reduce data center space requirements by up to 50%. This results in virtualized simulations that are environmentally friendly, increased development speed, and a reduction in new vehicle R&D costs by up to 70%. This power is further harnessed via Inspur’s parameter tuning and application optimization for CAE simulations, along with NEC’s rich experience in system integration.

A German auto manufacturer with an annual production of over 450,000 vehicles is one of the largest recipients of this new HPC solution for CAE automotive manufacturing from Inspur and NEC. The company required powerful and green HPC clusters to support its manufacturing development over the next 3-4 years as part of an overall HPCaaS concept.

The Inspur-NEC HPC cluster significantly improved HPC performance for this auto manufacturer while still fulfilling the requirements for environmental sustainability, restricted power consumption, and reduced TCO. It utilizes Inspur’s NF5180M6 1U dual-socket rack server for maximum performance, high-density, and low power consumption.

The Inspur NF5180M6 servers are powered by 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, DDR4 3200MhHz memory, and Mellanox’s latest HDR InfiniBand network, giving it the ultimate performance-to-size ratio in a petite 1U chassis. Trapezoidal radiators increase the surface area for improved heat dissipation and the BMC control strategy is optimized for peak efficency. This reduces fan power consumption, and enables support up to two 270W high-performance CPUs. Further power savings comes from an advanced platinum power supply that limits energy losses to less than 5%. Using the same power consumption levels, Inspur’s NF5180M6 performance in collision simulations improved by 30% compared to previous generation solutions.

This is a testament to Inspur’s ability to design infrastructure solutions that are both green and powerful, offering improved utilization of CAE software applications and collision simulation in the fields of engine development, cooling systems, vehicle flow field, and aerodynamic development design. With its green and efficient HPC server products, Inspur helped this automotive manufacturer run multiple HPC subsystems and more than 150 CAE applications that satisfy performance requirements, significantly reduce TCO, and promote environmental sustainability.

“Demand for vehicle personalization, autonomous driving, and electrification is growing,” said Liu Jun, Vice President of Inspur Information and General Manager of AI and HPC. “The automotive industry’s R&D investment in the field of high-performance computing continues to grow. The joint solution with NEC Deutschland will help automobile companies to improve competitiveness, innovation, and efficiency.”

Yuichi Kojima, Managing Director at NEC Deutschland said that “Computing power is fundamental to innovation speed and product quality. Based on Inspur’s high performance products and energy-saving technologies, and our capability to meet customers’ demands faster and easier, we can help Europe advance its digitalization efforts and be a showcase for sustainable development.”

Inspur Information is the world’s second largest server provider. Its servers and solutions have been widely used in various industries globally. According to Gartner, Inspur server shipments ranked second worldwide in 2021 with a 9.4% market share. It is a member of the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing (ETP4HPC) and is committed to co-building an ecosystem boosting the development of HPC industry in the region.

About Inspur Information

Inspur Information is a leading provider of data center infrastructure, cloud computing, and AI solutions. It is the world’s 2nd largest server manufacturer. Through engineering and innovation, Inspur Information delivers cutting-edge computing hardware design and extensive product offerings to address important technology sectors such as open computing, cloud data center, and AI. Performance-optimized and purpose-built, our world-class solutions empower customers to tackle specific workloads and real-world challenges. To learn more, visit https://www.inspursystems.com.

Source: Inspur Information