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It’s all part of the buzz
Eddie Jordan, undoubtedly the
most charismatic Formula 1™ team owner, is a complete optimist.
He says, “I believe
we can do it. The risk and the danger are all part of the buzz.” This
philosophy has made Jordan Grand Prix Limited one of the most
well liked Formula 1 teams around. The team finished fifth
in the World Championship in 1991 – its debut year. Thirteen
years later Jordan Grand Prix (Jordan) is one of only four
current teams to have won multiple races in F1 and a host of
drivers owe their first breaks to Eddie Jordan, including Michael
Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.
This year, a rejuvenated Jordan team is attacking the Formula
One World Championship with confidence and anticipation. To
support this endeavour, Jordan has recently implemented a Dassault
Systems CATIA® V5 design solution running on the latest
generation of PC workstations under Microsoft Windows®,
with ATI FireGL™ workstation graphics accelerators from ATI Technologies
Inc.
No compromise, on or off the track.
Dr James Henderson, Head
of IT at Jordan, is responsible for the provision of Jordan’s entire IT architecture, infrastructure
and services. He says, “F1 racing is incredibly rich
in information. At Jordan, our challenge is to ensure that
we use technology and computers to bring that richness into
play to get more from engine, tyres, chassis and driver.” He
adds, “In the relentless annual cycle of Formula 1, we
cannot and will not be compromised on the two most important
factors: performance and reliability. It is not difficult to
make things go fast, whether a racing car or a network or a
CAD workstation. The difficult thing is to make them go fast,
reliably.” He adds, “The right choice of 3D workstation
graphics accelerator is fundamental in this respect.”
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Getting the best out of CATIA
The CAD system that Jordan had
been using for a number of years could no longer meet the demands
that were being placed
on it. The company’s UNIX workstations were proving expensive
to support and there had been a number of problems with the
workstation graphics. In F1, even the smallest error in the
design of the car can have a big impact on a team’s performance
and success. In March 2004, Jordan began the transition to
CATIA. To eliminate the possible effects of design visualization
errors such as incorrect dimensions, and to get the best out
of the new system, the company needed workstation graphics
accelerators that were accredited for use with the new CAD
system.
Performance, stability and value-for-money
Adrian Collinson,
an IT Analyst at Jordan, evaluated a number of possible solutions.
He tested them using the Standard Performance
Evaluation Corporation benchmark SPECviewperf® 7.1.1 as
well as Jordan’s CAD system at that time. Jordan has
now installed ATI Technologies’ ATI FireGL graphic cards
in all 60 of its new CAD workstations. As well meeting Jordan’s
technical requirements, the ATI FireGL occupies just one PCI Express
or AGP slot. It is also particularly quiet in operation, something
of vital importance in modern design offices. Adrian adds, “In
making our decision, we were looking for performance, stability
and value-for-money. We have all of those with ATI FireGL.”
Better than ever before
As CAD Manager, Mike McGee’s job is to ensure that Jordan’s
system is running as efficiently as required. He comments, “Our
designers can come under huge amounts of pressure to complete
actions by certain deadlines. I feel their frustrations when
things don’t go well.” He adds, “Daily, we
are dealing with 3D assembly models of between five and five
hundred quite complex parts. In the past, the dynamic manipulation
of such large assemblies was slow and imprecise. With ATI FireGL,
I can honestly say that graphics performance is now the least
of our worries and certainly better than we have ever had before.
This has given me more time to concentrate on completing the
migration to CATIA.”
ATI FireGL provides the graphics power
Another user who testifies
to the value of ATI FireGL is Tim Gulland, a Senior Design Engineer
who has been with Jordan for ten years.
He says, “In developing the cars, we are striving to
fit parts into as small an envelope as possible. This means
we have to get deep into the 3D model and measure how close
things are together to ensure that everything fits.” He
continues, “This was very difficult and time consuming
with our previous software and hardware. Even after years of
practice, your mind can play tricks with a 3D wireframe model.
You can get an optical illusion where the wireframe can appear
to flip inside out. This can be very confusing and you really
have to concentrate to get your mind to flip it back. With
wireframe, it can be very difficult to identify and pick on
the correct edges and vertices, too.” Tim adds, “Show
a wireframe model to people who don’t use it on a day-to-day
basis and all they might perceive is a tangle of lines.” He
points out, “However, with CATIA, design and visualization
is so much faster and easier. Things are much more understandable
in 3D shaded mode. It may be CATIA that provides this functionality,
but it is the ATI FireGL card that provides the graphics power
to make this really effective.”
Manipulation no longer an issue
It is not only the designers
who gain from ATI FireGL. Simon Gardiner is one of a team of Design
Analysts at Jordan. His task is
to analyze the vehicle structure and optimize it for mass,
strength and stiffness. Simon says, “We have a real need
for high-performance graphics. We have to be able to manipulate
some pretty big 3D models so that we can see where and how
much load to add and so that we can examine the results of
the analysis. We need as near as possible real time rotation
of the model otherwise we lose time trying to second guess
where the model will stop.” He adds, “With ATI FireGL,
this is no longer an issue.”
The sport comes first
Chris Leat, Sponsorship Executive, sums
up, “The sport
comes first as far as we are concerned, and we have a real
passion for the team, the partners and our very loyal fans.” Jordan
is one of only a very small number of privateer teams left
on the F1 grid that is not owned by a major car manufacturer.
Because of this, Chris says, “We choose our suppliers
according to value, performance and efficiency, not according
to tradition, prestige or fashion. That is why we are so happy
with our choice of ATI FireGL.” Mike McGee has confidence
in the future, too. He says, “Soon we will be using CATIA – DMU
(digital mock-up) for management-level design reviews of the
complete car. We are certain that ATI FireGL will be up to the
task.”
Jordan
Media Alert (PDF)
© Copyright 2004 , ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
ATI FireGL is a trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. Windows is a
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