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Company Success Stories - Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter Soars to New Performance Heights After Selecting the AMD Opteron™ Processor
Profile
Bell Helicopter
"The AMD Opteron™ processor with AMD64 technology was very compelling for us, because it allows us to boost the performance of our current 32-bit applications and simultaneously prepare to migrate to 64-bit technology when we are ready. This is a very alluring aspect of AMD64 technology. - Nick Miller, IT services manager"
Company Profile
With more than 50 years experience of testing and flight innovation, Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, is a $1.6 billion, leading producer of vertical lift aircraft for commercial and military customers. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Bell has built some 35,000 helicopters since 1946 when the Bell 47 became the world’s first helicopter certificated for commercial use. A wholly owned subsidiary of Fortune 500 Company Textron Inc., Bell Helicopter is globally recognized for customer service, innovation and superior quality. Bell's global workforce of more than 7,500 employees serves customers flying Bell aircraft in over 120 countries.
A world aviation leader in advanced technology, Bell is also the pioneer of the revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft. Teamed with Boeing, Bell is producing the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor for the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force Special Operations Command. The tiltrotor can takeoff, hover and land like a helicopter and by rotating its nacelles forward can fly with the high-speed range and speed of a turboprop airplane. In a joint venture known as the Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company (BAAC), Bell and Agusta are developing a nine passenger commercial tiltrotor called the BA609, which made its first flight April 2003.
Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company with more than 43,000 employees in 40 countries. The company leverages its global network of aircraft, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at www.textron.com.
Challenge
Bell Helicopter, which is an established design pioneer, is recognized for taking strategic risks in order to lead the competition. Bell Helicopter’s IT team was faced with expiring workstation leases on close to 250 workstations that serve the company’s critical CAD/CAM/CAE engineering and product design teams. Rather than maintain the status quo by renewing the leases with the same technology, Bell’s IT leaders wanted to leverage the opportunity to implement a competitive design and time-to-market performance advantage in order to gain long-term strategic benefit. “We wanted to replace our existing systems with a higher performing platform that would empower our engineers and product designers with the ability to optimize the CAD/CAM/CAE applications that are used to design Bell’s most advanced helicopter designs,” said Nick Miller, IT services manager, CAD/CAM/CAE Group, Bell Helicopter, a Textron company.
As part of the decision-making process, Miller and his team also incorporated Bell Helicopter’s strategic goal of migrating several of Bell’s suite of CAD/CAM/CAE applications from UNIX to a mix of Linux and Windows®;-based PC’s. “We can’t have designers waiting for server time to model their designs, and so we needed systems that would ensure high performance at the workstation in combination with server-based applications,” reports Miller. “Additionally, because the CAD/CAM/CAE application demands are so rigorous, we have to be constantly forward-looking, and we know that the applications we rely on will ultimately be compiled for 64-bit computing.”
Solution
After surveying the landscape of workstations available on the market, Bell selected an IBM platform based on the AMD Opteron™ processor with Direct Connect Architecture. Miller describes the decision to implement AMD Opteron processor-based workstations as a straightforward one. “The idea of a seamless migration from 32-bit computing to 64-bit computing made the selection of AMD Opteron processor-based systems a ‘no-brainer’ for us,” reports Miller. “The risk was minimal, and it made a lot of sense in my mind to ensure a seamless migration path from 32-bit to 64-bit computing - only the AMD Opteron processor was proven to provide that capability.
Bell selected the AMD Opteron processor-based IBM IntelliStation A Pro series workstations running Microsoft®; Windows®; XP Professional and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 to replace their existing workstation systems. “When we factored in the performance gains with the competitive pricing of the AMD Opteron processor-based IBM IntelliStation A Pro series, the decision was clear from both a performance and cost perspective,” said Miller.
Miller reports that the real-time performance gains made possible by the
AMD Opteron-processor based IBM systems helped him evangelize the benefits of AMD64 technology to his engineering and product design teams. “Once our designers experienced the performance gains made possible by the AMD Opteron processor, particularly with regard to improved performance on 32-bit graphics applications, they were immediately impressed,” said Miller.
Impact
Miller describes the AMD Opteron processor-based IBM platform as an ideal solution, given Bell’s strategic business goal of empowering engineering and design teams with the ability to advance the design process. Miller expects that not only will Bell’s overall design process become more effective, but also that Bell’s designers will become more efficient, using the AMD Opteron processor-based workstations. “Graphics performance is a critical component of the design process, and now our designers can model and simulate on their PC’s without losing any performance. This enables them to do on their workstations what before they could only do on a server,” reports Miller.
Now deployed, the new AMD Opteron processor-based IBM workstations are delivering impressive results. Comments ranging from “we’re elated,” to “our guys love them,” “graphic performance is great,” and “we’re saving time on projects thanks to the dramatic performance improvements,” have been reported by Bell’s team of designers and engineers.
Miller also reports expected time-to-market benefits. “Since our designers can simulate new designs more readily using the AMD Opteron processor-based workstations, this has allowed us to improve the design process, which will accelerate time-to-market for advanced designs. This in turn will allow us to streamline the process of bringing new designs to market, not only helping to lower costs but also helping to keep Bell competitive.”
“There’s no doubt that we made the right decision - and it’s evident by our productivity gains,” reports Miller.
Quote
“The AMD Opteron™ processor with AMD64 technology was very compelling for us, because it allows us to boost the performance of our current 32-bit applications and simultaneously prepare to migrate to 64-bit technology when we are ready. This is a very alluring aspect of AMD64 technology.” – Nick Miller, IT services manager, CAD/CAM/CAE Group, Bell Helicopter, a Textron company.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises and governments to individual consumers. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
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