SGI blows by expectations

Feb 3, 2011 | Hot Topics

My morning news troll turned up the fact that shares of SGI, maker of servers and data storage hardware, are up nearly 20% in pre-opening trading. Why? Because SGI reported results yesterday that are making traders giddy: SGI believes it is benefitting from an upswing...

Simplify, simplify

Jan 24, 2011 | Hot Topics

I’ve been talking with a lot of engineers and scientists outside the typical PLM realm about their work, the processes the use and the IT tools they rely on — and the answers are forcing me to redefine how I see enabling tools.It’s all about perspective. I’m a...

Altair expands into CFD

Jan 12, 2011 | Hot Topics

Altair Engineering yesterday announced the acquisition of ACUSIM Software, maker of the AcuSolve family of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) products. Altair develops and markets a broad set of CAE tools, including the RADIOSS solver and the HyperMesh suite of...

Notes from an MSC MD workshop

Jan 3, 2011 | Hot Topics

Happy New Year! 2011 is already shaping up to be an interesting year, so I hope you took a few days off to rest up … Just before the holiday break, I attended an all-day MD Nastran workshop put on by MSC Software in suburban Boston. We began the day with a quick...

Momentum continues in ESI’s Q3 results

Dec 14, 2010 | Hot Topics

ESI Group today released results for its fiscal third quarter, ended October 31, 2010 — and they continue ESI’s upward trajectory. Total revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year was €16.0 million, up 16% from a year ago but down 6% sequentially, following...

FloTHERM: Cool debottlenecking

Nov 8, 2010 | Hot Topics

I get to see a lot of interesting technology — some mega-packages, some more modest and some that just make me go “what a good idea!”.  Today Dr. Erich Buergel, General Manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division (formerly Flomerics), told me about the...

ANSYS Q3: Good but slowing down?

Nov 4, 2010 | Hot Topics

ANSYS reported Q3 results that show continued improvement over 2009, though perhaps dampened as the market awaited the arrival of the 13.0 release of products and as pent-up demand from last year is exhausted. •Total revenue was $139.8 million, up 9% from a year ago...

PTC, DS, Altair and Hexagon oh my

Oct 28, 2010 | Hot Topics

Lots going on today — PTC makes its big announcement (and, I think, slipped up a bit on some timing), DS reports that Q3 was really good, Altair acquires SimLab and Hexagon closes on Intergraph.  Briefly, before I flit off to the PTC event: •PTC’s been so loudly...

News bits: 3D, clouds and more

Oct 19, 2010 | Hot Topics

Still trying to catch up from nearly a month of personal and business travel, so here are a few interesting things from my overflowing in-box: Autodesk commissioned a survey of online consumers that showed that the majority prefer to examine potential purchases in 3D...

MSC is revving up

Sep 22, 2010 | Hot Topics

I recently spoke with Dominic Gallello, CEO of MSC Software, and John Janevic, VP Strategic Operations, and came away impressed with their plans for revitalizing MSC and its products.  Mr. Gallello took over just about a year ago and has spent much of that time...