SGI Acquires OpenCFD Ltd.

By DE Editors

SGI has completed the acquisition of OpenCFD Ltd., the developer of OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, consisting of more than 80 solver and 170 utility applications.

"We are excited to be part of SGI and now be able to take OpenFOAM to the next level," says Henry Weller, founder of OpenCFD. "OpenFOAM is the highest quality code available for CFD. The open source model provides customers with the code transparency and the full view into the inner workings of the software they need to have confidence in the results, particularly when they perform safety calculations for projects such as nuclear reactors or aircraft design."

The entire OpenCFD team, led by Weller, has joined SGI as full-time employees and will be based out of SGI's EMEA headquarters located in the UK. In addition, SGI has formed a non-profit foundation to make OpenFOAM accessible to everyone and allow for community contributions. SGI says it is fully committed to the continued development of OpenFOAM, which will continue to be open under the GNU Public License (GPL).

"OpenFOAM has built a strong following as an open source CFD solution," says Steve Conway, IDC research vice president for HPC. "SGI aims to give the free, open source version a permanent home where it can flourish, while adding a fee-based version with even fuller features and tighter integration with SGI offerings."

In addition to providing free downloads of OpenFOAM source code from the SGI-sponsored OpenFOAM foundation's openfoam.org web site, SGI will offer:

• A fee-based OpenFOAM supportsubscription to help customers implement and run OpenFoam in theirenvironments.
• A fee-based, fully supported SGIOpenFOAM distribution, including SGI message passing interface (MPI).
• Training and professional servicesfor complex CFD deployments on SGI and in other environments.

For more information, visit SGI and the OpenFOAM foundation.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.