5. The revival of remote computing

[Chapter 5 of the lecture CAD to SFT.
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5.1 The three deterrents to the wider use of SFT

So far, this review has drawn attention to three promising developments:-

the building of a smooth CAD-to-CFD highway;
the absorption of CFD and CASA into SFT; and
the creation of physical models of improved economy and realism.

However these developments will have only limited impact on engineering practice until three deterrents to the wider use of computer-simulation techniques, especially by small and medium enterprises, can be significantly diminished. These deterrents are:

the cost of the software;
the cost of hardware of sufficient power to run many fine-grid simulations; and
the scarcity and expense of personnel capable of using them.

5.2 The MICA project

(a) Objective and nature

MICA is an EC-funded project designed to show how a "remote- computing" service can diminish the above-mentioned deterrents.

MICA is an acronym for Model for Industrial CFD Applications. It has been conducted by a consortium of companies and universities from nine European countries, namely:

INRIA (France); U Paderborn and U Erlangen (Germany); NTU Athens (Greece); IST-Lisbon (Portugal); Hoogovens and Stork-Comprimo (Holland); CMR (Norway); U Zaragoza (Spain); Vattenfall and SMHI (Sweden); CHAM, BRE and WAT&G (UK).

The general idea is that:-

users use low-cost virtual-reality customised software on PCs;
these are linked via Internet to remote parallel-computer centres, so that users pay only for computer time, according to use;
advisory cennntes supply human expertise when it is needed.

(b) Customization

Ten application sectors were selected for attention, namely:

Oil-platform explosions
Smoke movement and fire spread in buildings
Heating and ventilating of buildings
Air and pollutant flow around assemblies of buildings
Flow around marine structures
Coal-fired industrial furnaces
Glass-melting and refining furnaces
Annealing furnaces
Industrial ovens
Steam condensers for power stations

(c) Validation

The partners in the project were divided into creators, validators, and end-users; and the aim was to demonstrate that the remote- computing concept could be used cost-effectively and comfortably.

Validation was therefore of several kinds, the questions to be answered being:

is this mode of making CFD simulations practicable at all?
is it convenient?
is it cheap?
is the advice helpful?
are the simulations reliable?

It is the first four questions, of course, which relate to the remote-computing service. The last is about CFD, regardless of how it is provided; and the author's views on it have appeared above.

(d) Current status

The two-year MICA project, due for completion at the end of 1997, will over-run by four months; and, since validation is an infinitely extensible activity, its end will inevitably leave some questions still unanswered

It is however safe to assert already:

that the remote-computing mode IS practicable;
that it IS convenient;
and that it IS cheap.

The advisory aspect is the least-well developed; and its satisfactoriness will in any case take longer to be assessed.

Overall, participants in and observers of MICA regard the project as successful, and have concluded that remote computing, which rose to prominence in the sixties, then (almost) disappeared in the seventies, will soon become prominent again, and will remain so.

5.3 SIMUSERVE

So strongly do some of them believe in the above conclusion that they are preparing to launch a world-wide service, of which the current (but not yet final) name is SIMUSERVE.

This will follow the MICA model, and especially the ingredients of:

customized virtual-reality user interfaces;
parallel-computing at remote sites;
communication via Internet;
provision of "on-tap" advice and quality assurance.

"On-tap" is an appropriate phrase; for SIMUSERVE has been described as providing, for the CAE-using world, the equivalent of "piped water", in distinction from the "bucket-and-well" technology to which the current own-software-own-hardware practices correspond. SIMUSERVE is due to be launched in the second half of 1998.
It will provide the whole range of services which form CHAM's "solution spectrum" , except for the two traditional extremes, namely consultancy at the one end and stand-alone-software sales at the other.

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