The integrated software solution will be based on product platforms from both companies. Gradient's full-chip thermal analysis tool FireBolt, allows IC designers to access temperature anywhere within a chip and to evaluate how to improve the design with respect to timing, leakages, and reliability, while Flomerics' package-level thermal analysis Flopack tool automates model creation through wizard-driven geometry macros.

“The backbone of analysis is data accessibility” said Roland Feldhinkel, NIKA managing director. “With EFD.Flexx, engineers can share resources and conduct fully integrated fluid flow and heat transfer analyses within CATIA V5 and Pro/ENGINEER. Engineers can further supplement their design power and data accessibility by using the company’s sophisticated 3D solid modeler with native direct interfaces to most major CAD packages. With EFD.Flexx users can freely choose the best and most economic way to handle CAD data for their fluid flow simulations and benefit from extensive time and cost savings.”

The project, titled Integrated Biomedical Informatics for the Management of Cerebral Aneurysms, is being carried out by a consortium of 29 public and private institutions of 12 European countries. It also includes several organizations from the U.S.A., New Zealand and Japan as external collaborators.

This Proceedings CD has 229 papers, 137 sets of user presentation slides, 44 sets of keynote presentation slides, and even 30 ready-to-run models.

The companies will merge their businesses and market their combined product portfolio of simulation tools around the world. Flomerics as the market leader in thermal analysis for electronics with its flagship product FLOTHERM has a well established global sales network and will help NIKA to significantly expand sales into countries such as the USA and the UK.

In addition to improvements in existing tools like prism grows and surface intersection, TGrid 4.0 offers a new surface wrapper tool. The wrapper provides faster turnaround time for meshing (from CAD to volume meshing) in complicated geometry while retaining excellent mesh quality and including more complex geometry details.

Through testing trials for front-end underhood applications, the wrapper, as compared to the traditional method of meshing, has proven to reduce the turnaround time from seven weeks to only one week.