JULY 17, 2007

Williams upgrades computing power with Lenovo

Williams and Lenovo started their relationship earlier this year and that has now been extended to assist the team with its computational fluid dynamics (CFD) development. This enables the team to simulate the airflow around virtual models of racing cars, which will mean that more work can be done by computer to predict the effects that new parts will have. That will free up time in the windtunnels and allow the aerodynamicists to concentrate on other things. The Lenovo computer is capable of a peak performance of eight teraflops, which if four times more powerful than the existing Williams computers.

"The tremendous increase in power delivered by the Lenovo supercomputer will allow us to perform the same tasks we do today in a quarter of the time," says Williams's chief operating officer Alex Burns. "It will give us the capability to examine a greater range of design variations between races, which will increase our development rate, bringing more performance to the car sooner."