Altair’s PBS Works to optimize software for Intel MIC architecture

USA: Altair Engineering, a leading global provider of simulation and advanced computing software solutions, announced that PBS Works has partnered with Intel Corp. to optimize its software for future Intel Many Integrated Core (Intel MIC) products.

The strategic partnership was formed to proactively ensure that as the first commercially available Intel MIC product, codenamed “Knights Corner,” is launched broadly, PBS Professional will be able to seamlessly schedule jobs onto both Intel Xeon processors and Intel MIC co-processors without requiring additional technical support.

“Altair and Intel have worked closely together for many years and it is an honor to be part of this important development phase with Intel MIC,” said Bill Nitzberg, CTO of PBS Works. “We are confident that the insight and expertise we have provided to Intel on hardware and software development environments, specifically those related to optimizing workload scheduling and management in the HPC environment, will ensure Altair’s PBS Works and HyperWorks customers will be ready for Intel MIC when it launches.”

Intel has provided Altair early access to the Intel MIC software development platform, codenamed “Knights Ferry,” and early versions of the software stack. The advance integration efforts between the two companies will help ensure seamless integration of PBS Professional, Altair’s EAL3+ security certified commercial-grade high-performance computing (HPC) workload management solution.

Key benefits of optimizing PBS Works for Intel MIC include:
* Access to Altair solvers, beginning with RADIOSS, enabling Intel customers to take advantage of the advances in speed, performance and capability that Intel MIC architecture can bring.

* Access to PBS Professional, allowing organizations to maximize efficient use of their computing resources and to rapidly initiate HPC jobs, improving overall productivity and return on investment.

“The ‘Knights Ferry’ program allows us to gain valuable insight from our partners and ensures that Intel MIC architecture, the latest breakthrough in high performance computing, has full software support for a variety of usage models when it launches,” said Paresh Pattani, Intel’s director of HPC and Many Core computing. “We are pleased to partner with Altair to enable PBS Works, a key ingredient for HPC workload management.”