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Red Bull F1 racing up the grid
Grid computing that is...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 07 March 2008

The Red Bull Formula One (F1) team is using grid computing to boost development work for its 2008 racing car by getting the most out of its processing power.

With the constant need for more computing power, the team is using Platform Computing's LSF system to take advantage of spare processing power across its network.

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Using a combination of computer aided design, wind tunnel analysis and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) the team uses a supercomputer to deal with the data produced.

Steve Nevey, business development manager for Red Bull Technology, said: "We have around 1,500 cores making CFD calculations for us. This is very much a key part of what we're doing now. [It] is where we can really gain our competitive advantage."

Using grid technology, workstations left idle by staff when they leave work can also be incorporated to boost power for the complex data analysis required to develop the car's aerodynamics.

LSF also helps with the scheduling of processing tasks so the most critical tasks can be put through first.

Nevey added: "What Platform and LSF gives us is the ability to fully utilise resources. [It] enables us to schedule [and prioritise] those jobs."

By using the additional processing power in its network the team has been able to significantly speed up analysis time, achieving a 20 per cent increase in the number of tasks it can complete.

Nathan Sykes, CFD team leader at Red Bull, said: "CFD is generally defining the next areas of development. The more we can simulate, the better."