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Linux Business

Chrysler Adopts Linux For Vehicle Simulations 255

Posted by CowboyNeal from the cheap-number-crunching dept.
eMilkshake writes "According to this ComputerWorld article, Chrysler is adopting Linux for vehicle crash testing. According to the article, 'the new system is expected to improve simulation performance by 20%, while saving about 40% in costs....'" Insert knee-jerk reaction joke about computers and crashing here.
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Chrysler Adopts Linux For Vehicle Simulations More

Chrysler Adopts Linux For Vehicle Simulations

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  • dummies (Score:4, Funny)

    by dirvish ( 574948 ) <dirvish@foundne[ ]com ['ws.' in gap]> on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:02PM (#4500396) Homepage Journal
    What OS will the crash test dummies run?
  • Better served by windows.

    • Re:This is one application -- You don't understand (Score:5, Informative)

      by Proudrooster ( 580120 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @09:02PM (#4501102) Homepage
      The application itself if not going to run on the cluster. The cluster is simply going to be used as a "compute farm" for solving the datasets and models produced by the application.

      This is similar to what is happening in the animation industry. The LINUX boxes are simply going to "crunch" the numbers and feed the results back to an application running under Windows or high end UNIX workstations.

      For a cheap "compute farm" cluster, you can't beat Red Hat Advanced Server with Xenon's.

      We are planning to build a 16 node cluster next year for the same purpose as Chrysler. Again, the apps aren't running here, LS-Dyna, DynaForm, Hypermesh, FEMB etc ... will still all run on a UNIX/Windows workstation, but the solving will be done (very quickly) on a Red Hat cluster.

      It just rocks!
      • For a cheap "compute farm" cluster, you can't beat Red Hat Advanced Server with Xenon's.

        Sure you can, how about redhat iso's running on Athlon MP's (or soon Opterons). Free software on better price/performance hardware.
        • Ok, you win.. that beats it :)

          However, I try to throw some cash Red Hat's way every now and then so they keep making distros.

          Assume your cluster costs $50,000 to build (including the Giga-bit ethernet gear), you are only going to pay $l000 or less for the O/S.

          That's a great deal and a half. Also, that paultry $1,000 investment keeps you in patches plus, gets your a year of email install/configuration tech support.

          But, your solution is definately cheaper !

  • Why linux? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by billd ( 11997 )
    Seems the obvious choice. Otherwise you'd have to use Windows.

  • Linux (Score:1, Insightful)

    by molywi ( 136881 )
    Hiring a couple *nix hackers/gurus is a lot more cost effective then spending millions on Windows licenses. The only obvious block in moving to Linux is if the particular software package was not available. I hope this makes cars cheaper as we wont have to support the high Windows license costs everytime we buy a car!

    • Re:Linux (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kbielefe ( 606566 )
      Good point except for those particular applications were running on Unix before, not Windows.
      • right, this is just another case of linux replacing unix, not windows. cost savings are vs the old unix boxes.

      • Re:Linux (Score:3, Insightful)

        by oh ( 68589 )
        Just following up on this and other replies. It has been said several times that the parent of the parent [slashdot.org] is incorrect, and several people have asked why it was modded up.

        I don't know why it was modded up, but I have moderator points, and I'm not going to mod it as overrated. I'm posting instead.

        Moderation shouldn't be about correct or incorrect. It should be about improving the discussion. Its better to leave the post alone and reply to it, that way both view points can be expressed.

        Leave the readers to make up their own minds, rather then censoring any views that you disagree with.

    • Re:Linux (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Valar ( 167606 )
      Actually, what accounts for about 50% of the cost of any given new car in America are the taxes. I was stunned to find this out.
      • It depends very much on the car. A foreign SUV or light truck has a 33% tariff. And, there is a small luxury tax on something like a BMW. There are property taxes and sales tax on transportation.

        So it can add up, but that's if you're buying an imported BMW or Lexus SUV. If it's a small US car the taxes are minscule, even an American $50k SUV doesn't then it's only a few percent.

        There is also taxes on the workers income, and any profit, but that's going to depend a lot on the country it's made in and where it's made. I could believe the 50% figure on an SUV made in Germany, but not on a some car made in Mexico(no tariff) for a US company racking up losses not profits.

  • Nice specs (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nintendork ( 411169 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:05PM (#4500414) Homepage
    Multiple Intel Xeons, a few terabytes of gigabit speed network storage. I wonder what FPS they get in Tux Racer. :)

  • Other references (Score:5, Informative)

    by mmol_6453 ( 231450 ) <short DOT circui ... OT grnet DOT com> on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:05PM (#4500415) Homepage Journal
    eWeek [eweek.com]
    Computer Graphics World [pennnet.com]
    Business Week [businessweek.com]
    Globetechnology.com [globetechnology.com]
    ZDNet [com.com]

    The wonders of news.google.com [google.com].

  • Good one... (Score:5, Funny)

    by andres32a ( 448314 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:05PM (#4500416) Homepage
    HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"

    Customer: "I got in my car and closed the door and nothing happened!"

    HelpLine: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"

    Customer: "What's an ignition?"

    HelpLine: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery
    and turns over the engine."

    Customer: "Ignition?Motor?Battery?Engine?How come I have to
    know all these technical terms just to use my car?"

    • Re:Good one... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That's the problem with you Linux folk... the customer wants you to speak English!

      Customer: "What's an ignition?"

      HelpLine: "It's what makes your car start running."

      Customer: "Oh! Okay."
  • I was going to say that Microsoft could compliment it's "Switch to XP" ad campaign with "Linux Crashes", but that would be too easy.
    • "I was going to say that Microsoft could compliment it's "Switch to XP" ad campaign with "Linux Crashes", but that would be too easy."

      Seriously, they're not going to draw attention to their #1 competitor by smearing it, especially when most of their customer base has never even heard of it.

      • In my experience, most people involved in business IT decision making have heard of Linux by now.

        That's not true for home users, though. That market will come eventually, but we'll see Linux on corporate desktops before it's widely used in the non-geek home market.

  • There's another article at eWeek.com [eweek.com]: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,642716,00.asp [eweek.com]

  • Humus (Score:5, Funny)

    by EggplantMan ( 549708 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:07PM (#4500430) Homepage

    In the name of efficiency I've decided to combine all of these exceedingly clever jokes into one package!

    Cmdr_Taco: What happen?
    Mechanic: Somebody set us up the troll article.
    Operator: We get signal.
    Cmdr_Taco: What !
    Operator: Main screen turn on.
    Cmdr_Taco: It's you !!
    Katz: How are you gentlemen !!
    Katz: All your little boys are belong to us.
    Katz: You are on the way to your spelling sucks.
    Cmdr_Taco: What yuort say !!
    Katz: You have no chance to survive make your time.
    Katz: Ha Ha Ha Ha ... .
    Cmdr_Taco: 1. Take off every "sig."
    Cmdr_Taco: ...
    Cmdr_Taco: 3. Profit!

  • After running a simulation on windows to simulate a simulation crash of their testing simulations.

  • Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)

    by carlfish ( 7229 ) <cmiller@pastiche.org> on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:09PM (#4500442) Homepage Journal

    Headline, six months from now:


    Chrysler abandons Linux crash-testing simulation. "We just couldn't get them to crash", says spokesman.

  • If Operating Systems Were Cars... (Score:5, Funny)

    by andres32a ( 448314 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:09PM (#4500444) Homepage
    MS-DOS: You get in the car and try to remember where you put the keys.

    WINDOWS: You get in the car and drive to the store very slowly, because attached to the back of the car is a freight train.

    MAC SYSTEM 8: You get in the car to go to the store and the car drives you to church.

    UNIX: You get in the car and type GREP STORE. After reaching 2000 mph en route, you arrive at the barber's shop.

    WINDOWS NT: You get in the car and write a letter that says 'go to the store'. Then you get out of the car and nail the letter to the dashboard.

    TALIGENT/PINK: You walk to the store with Ricardo Montalban who tells you how wonderful it will be when he can fly you to the store in his Learjet.

    OS/2: After fuelling up with 6000 gallons of gas you get in the car and drive to the store with a motorcycle escort and a marching band in procession. Halfway there, the car blows up, killing everyone in town.

    S/36 SSP: You get in the car and drive to the store. Halfway there you run out of gas. While walking the rest of the way you are run over by kids on mopeds.

    AS/400: An attendant kicks you into the car and then drives you to the store where you watch everyone else buy filets mignon.

    BeOSYour car goes faster, looks better, draws amazed stares everywhere you go, and has amazing preformance. Yet, when you try to fill it up, you find that it is incompatable with almost all know gas products.

    • You could just have provided a link, you know. As opposed to cut'n'pasting this outdated document.

      WINDOWS NT: You get in the car and write a letter that says 'go to the store'. Then you get out of the car and nail the letter to the dashboard.

      WTF?!
    • MAC SYSTEM 8: You get in the car to go to the store and the car drives you to church.

      I never quiet understood this reference. Wouldn't this behavior be more indicative of Windows XP? (like how the first time I tried to manually enter an IP, it too me 25 minutes to convince it that I really didn't want to sign up for MSN or have it auto-configure my cable/dsl connection for me)

  • Crash Test Dummies? (Score:4, Funny)

    by cornjchob ( 514035 ) <thisiswherejunkgoes@gmail.com> on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:09PM (#4500446)
    Once
    There were these guys who
    Thought that using Linux would
    Improve their product's safety

    And when
    they fin'ly did it
    They found
    Gates had set fire to their work

    He said that it was because
    The Sherman act had smacked him
    sooooo hard

    mmmmm mmmm mmmm mmm
    mmmmm mmmm mmmm mmm

    Ah, the good ol' Crash Test Dummies...we hardly knew ye.
  • There's yet another article at News.com.com.com: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-962661.html [com.com]

  • I don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vlad_petric ( 94134 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:11PM (#4500458) Homepage
    The price tag for the deal isn't being released. Cost savings were a major motivator for the project, which was first considered about a year ago.

    And how precisely are they going to save money ? And save money relative to what ? The old system ? (I kind of doubt it) The same hardware system with a proprietay OS ? Maintenance costs ?

    This article has all the characteristics of a "negative" FUD.

    The Raven.

    • Re: I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:28PM (#4500571)


      > And how precisely are they going to save money ? And save money relative to what ? The old system ? (I kind of doubt it) The same hardware system with a proprietay OS ? Maintenance costs ?

      See the links modded up to (5, informative) elsewhere. The general idea is that these days you buy a Linux CoW or Beowulf cluster instead of upgrading the ageing Cray. And for some reason it's still newsworthy, though people have been doing it for the better part of a decade now [beowulf.org].

      Not that I mind the good PR for Linux, but it is a curious phenomenon that this kind of detail of a big corporation's IT affairs is considered newsworthy.

      • Re: I don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Dirtside ( 91468 )
        Not that I mind the good PR for Linux, but it is a curious phenomenon that this kind of detail of a big corporation's IT affairs is considered newsworthy.
        Keep in mind that the majority of the news sources (or "news sources" where appropriate) covering this story are, if not actual pro-Linux sources (like /.), at the very least computer news sources. Google News comes up with only about 10 hits for chrysler linux (compared to 726 for sniper arrests), so it's not like it's even been that widely covered so far; and this kind of business change actually is a newsworthy development in the computer industry.

        You'd see this as a news story from computer-themed news sources; it'd be a "feature" in mainstream or general news sources.

    • And how precisely are they going to save money ? And save money relative to what ? The old system ?

      The savings are probably compared to buying a comprably powerful system running a proprietary Unix. I'd assume that the biggest chunk of the savings is that they can run on (comparatively) cheap commodity hardware. This seems to be a very common reason for moving to Linux: it lets you run your old Unix software on much cheaper boxes.

    • lets see,

      A decade ago RISC workstations (mostly running Unix, although NT started coming online soon after) had a far better price/performance on floating point compute cycles than Intel x86. If you needed to solve problems beyond the capacity of RISC processors (then 20-50Mflops) for $10-20K you needed to move to Cray (vector) processors (200+Mflops / CPU) with costs running in the range of a million $US per cpu.

      Unfortunately crush analysis (and structural FEA in general) doesn't scale all that well on multi cpu systems (at 8 CPUs you might see 4x speedup). Thus if you really needed run this sort of solution (in less than a couple of months compute time) it was worth the cost of the Cray.

      5 years ago while Xeon began to eclipse RISC in showing the best price / performance numbers, Unix/RISC (usually using super-scalar architectures) systems scaled to the point of replacing the vector based systems and proprietary Unix clustering has been solid and scalable to an order of magnitude beyond what you could think of doing with NT/W2k.

      Today the 'sweet spot' in price/performance is definitely intel Xeon and as most of this code has been developed on Unix, Linux is easy to do, and Linux clustering is certainly good enough to manage these tasks.

      Of course it could be run on win32 but why?

      Where you see FUD here is beyond me.

  • they're replacing Unix (Score:4, Insightful)

    by stevenj ( 9583 ) <stevenj@al[ ]mit.edu ['um.' in gap]> on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:13PM (#4500475) Homepage
    On the off chance that you actually read the article, you'll see that they're replacing Unix machines, not Windows, with Linux. This is a no-brainer, especially since their software is probably custom-developed and can easily be recompiled under GNU/Linux.
    • Somehow, there's this perception that if a business migrates from Unix to Linux, that it's not a victory, that it might as well not be reported.

      But, keep in mind, that very many of these Unix to Linux conversions may well have been, 5-7 years ago, Unix to NT conversions. Maybe more than half.

      What's happened in the past few years is that Linux has all but halted NT/2000/XP's growth in the server space. And, being a *nix advocate, I think that's good news.

  • If people bought cars like computers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by andres32a ( 448314 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:13PM (#4500480) Homepage
    HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"

    Customer: "My car ran fine for a week and now it won't go anywhere!"

    HelpLine: "Is the gas tank empty?"

    Customer: "Huh?How do I know?"

    HelpLine: "There's a little gauge on the front panel with a needle
    and markings from 'E' to 'F'.Where is the needle
    pointing?"

    Customer: "It's pointing to 'E'.What does that mean?"

    HelpLine: "It means you have to visit a gasoline vendor and purchase
    some more gasoline.You can install it yourself or pay
    the vendor to install it for you."

    Customer: "What?I paid ,000 for this car!Now you tell me that
    I have to keep buying more components?I want a car that
    comes with everything built in!"

    HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"

    Customer: "Your cars suck!"

    HelpLine: "What's wrong?"

    Customer: "It crashed, that's what wrong!"

    HelpLine: "What were you doing?"

    Customer: "I wanted to run faster, so I pushed the accelerator pedal
    all the way to the floor.It worked for a while and then
    it crashed and it won't start now!

    HelpLine: "It's your responsibility if you misuse the product.What
    do you expect us to do about it?"

    Customer: "I want you to send me one of the latest version that
    doesn't crash any more!"

    HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"

    Customer: "Hi, I just bought my first car, and I chose your car
    because it has automatic transmission, cruise control,
    power steering, power brakes, and power door locks."

    HelpLine: "Thanks for buying our car.How can I help you?"

    Customer: "How do I work it?"

    HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"

    Customer: "Do I know how to what?"

    HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"

    Customer: "I'm not a technical person.I just want to go places
    in my car!"
    • Funny, I was just thinking about this. A reletive just lost a whole bunch of data, due to a in a software program. While cars require a bit of basic knowledge, and licensing, there is liability there. If ford builds Taurauses with defective ignition controle modules(true), and my cars stalls and gets hit in the middle of an accident, I can sue them. When my relative lost his data due to something that was not his fault, who's liable. No one.
      • That's right, you can't sue them. And you don't want to. The car industry is horribly regulated, pretty much since the Ford Pinto. Typical markups on computers these days are about 10%, compared to a standard 100% markup for other products. Some products such as cables, enjoy a 12x increase.

        If you had to pay for insurance for a powersupply failing, you'd be spending $5000 for a $2000 computer, although it'd certainly be more reliable. Of course, it wouldn't run as fast, plus you'd then have to invest $1000 into an OS... even Linux most certainly wouldn't be free (as in beer) if liability was an issue.
      • Who's liable?
        She is.

        This is why any data you care about must be backed up. If she didn't take proper precautions with her data, that's her fault. Being a newbie doesn't change that.
        Think about it kinda the same way as wearing your seatbelt.
        I can only feel so bad for a person who dies in a car accident if they weren't wearing their seatbelt and it's the same for lost data.
        Hard drives are mechanical devices, as a result, their relibility is crap compared to just about everying else in your computer. Software isn't perfect, there are always a few bugs in some software package you could possibly install that will hose your system if you're not careful.

        It's easy to protect your data if you understand how to use a computer, and if you don't, you should expect sub-optimal results from your computer use until you learn.
        This doesn't mean I'm going to call the person an idiot for loosing the data. (Heck, it probably took most of us a disk crash or two before we realized just how important backups are.) I'll just tell them that there are various ways of protecting your data, so if they care about not losing it, they should learn how to back things up.
    • Yeah, well most people grew up with a car so they had experiences with all those terms and ideas, so that generally doesn't happen. Plus, you have to take drivers education class in most places in the US, so people are informed. Kids now a days have computers everywhere - at home, at school, on tv, etc. In a decade or so, a majority of these semi-stupid complaints will probably be replaced by more intelligen ones... like why do I shutdown my computer from the start men? ;)

      [Yes, I realize this was for comic relief, but there was something else I thought was worth saying]

      Matt

  • How much of that savings is about Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jasonditz ( 597385 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:13PM (#4500483) Homepage
    It says the Linux solution saves 40% over the prior Unix solution, but it doesn't say what the prior solution is. Are the savings here really coming from using Linux, or just from using cheap commodity hardware clustered together?

  • Interesting choice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TWX_the_Linux_Zealot ( 227666 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:13PM (#4500484) Journal
    ...especially for a public announcement. I remember a while ago Microsoft was touting their big thing with how their clustering was going to out-do anything opensource with a few months, yet more and more large corporations, and not simply startups or new, tech-savvy ones, are adopting Linux or some other form of open source instead. I hope this demonstrates a continuing shift away from poorly written server code to something more viable and of better spec.

  • Car Trouble (Score:5, Funny)

    by andres32a ( 448314 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:15PM (#4500501) Homepage
    Four men rode in a car, a mechnical engineer, an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer, and a computer engineer. The car stalled out.

    The mechnical engineer said it must be the pistons, let's repair them and we'll be okay.

    The electrical engineer said it has to be the spark plugs, we'll replace them and be ready to roll.

    The chemical engineer said it's got to be bad gas, we'll flush the system and be on our way.

    They turned to the computer engineer. What do you think we should do?

    Let's get out of the car and get back in.

    • Re:Car Trouble (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      i dont get it

    • Re:Car Trouble (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      nonono...



      Its supposed to be


      Computer engineer: Close all windows and restart the car...

    • Re:Car Trouble (Score:5, Funny)

      by GI Jones ( 21552 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:40PM (#4500633) Homepage
      Actually, it goes:

      Four men rode in a car, a mechnical engineer, an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer, and a Microsoft(R) software engineer. The car stalled out.

      The mechnical engineer said it must be the pistons, let's repair them and we'll be okay.

      The electrical engineer said it has to be the spark plugs, we'll replace them and be ready to roll.

      The chemical engineer said it's got to be bad gas, we'll flush the system and be on our way.

      They turned to the computer engineer. What do you think we should do?

      First close all the open windows then restart.

    • Re:Car Trouble (Score:5, Funny)

      by flacco ( 324089 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:50PM (#4500688)
      Four men rode in a car, a mechnical engineer, an electrical engineer, a chemical engineer, and a computer engineer.

      And, definitely, none of them got laid that night.

    • Re:Car Trouble (Score:5, Funny)

      by dollargonzo ( 519030 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @08:02PM (#4500749) Homepage
      i heard it quite differently, mostly starting with the fact they were going down an icy hill and eventually stopped the car at the bottom.

      [middle is the same]

      software engineer:

      let's go down once more, and see if the problem happens gain!

    • three engineering students are all standing around the water cooler one day trying to figure out what kind of engineer God is.

      "well he must be a mechanical engineer" says the one, "have you looked at how complex the skeleton is, all those joints, man!"

      "no, no, no," says another, "have you seen the brain he MUST be an electrical engineer, well never even hope to understand its complexities."

      "you both have valid points," says the third "but i must contest that God is a civil engineer, i mean who else would run a hazardous waste line through a recreational area?"

      rimshot... ahem right, back to work.

  • So this might explain why the SGI Octane I just bought off eBay had chrysler.com nameservers referenced in it. /me wonders

  • new car name required (Score:5, Funny)

    by erikdotla ( 609033 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:27PM (#4500566)
    Due to pressure from the FSF, since Linux was used as part of the car production process, GM will be forced to release the 2003 GNU/Taurus.

    • GM will be forced to release the 2003 GNU/Taurus

      Uh ...

      1. The Taurus is a Ford product. Ford and GM are competitors.
      2. The article was about Daimler-Chrysler, not GM.
      3. Chrysler doesn't make the Taurus, either.

      Perhaps you meant the 2003 GNU/Sebring? Or at least pick a car from the Daimler-Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge/Mitsubishi stable, rather than a Ford car and attribute it to GM. Maybe I'm just being anal.

  • Almost makes me want to buy a Chrysler.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by slickwillie ( 34689 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:29PM (#4500574)
    ...just kidding.

  • Wait a minute (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by dh003i ( 203189 )
    So wait a minute, you save money by using Linux? Are you telling me that the folks at MS are lying and that the TCO for Winodws isn't lower?

    I thought that paying $200 for every copy of Windows and regular forced "update fees" would be cheaper than buying one Debian GNU/Linux CD and then updating using apt for free.

    Are you telling me that a product which costs less and functions equivalently will actually save you money? That doesn't make any sense. Microsoft says it doesn't.

    • Re:Wait a minute (Score:4, Informative)

      by Osty ( 16825 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:55PM (#4500711)

      So wait a minute, you save money by using Linux? Are you telling me that the folks at MS are lying and that the TCO for Winodws isn't lower?

      Red herring. The article was about a migration to linux from a proprietary unix, not from Windows. Therefore, the only conclusion you can draw here is that linux saves you money over other unix operating systems. You can't make any conclusions about linux TCO vs. Windows TCO based on this article.


      Care to try again?

      • Re:Wait a minute (Score:3, Insightful)

        by joib ( 70841 )
        Well, if it was well-known that TCO for a windows cluster would be lower than for a linux cluster on the same hardware, then they would certainly have bought a windows cluster instead. I don't think portability is a big problem here. Most numerical code is quite portable.

        Looking at windowsclusters.org, it seems that most project there are using windows simply because MS agreed to supply both hardware and software, en exchange for using windows instead of linux.

        • Well, if it was well-known that TCO for a windows cluster would be lower than for a linux cluster on the same hardware, then they would certainly have bought a windows cluster instead. I don't think portability is a big problem here. Most numerical code is quite portable.

          Unless the code for linux simply needed a recompile and maybe some touch-ups, while the code for windows would need a whole new interface. It's easier to switch from unix to linux, which would mean that the windows solution would have to have a much lower TCO, which probably isn't the case (whether or not Windows TCO is lower than Linux TCO is an argument for a different topic, and needs well-defined rules about what duties the target machine(s) would be fulfilling). I'd guess that the decrease in costs from a Unix to Linux switch would be sufficient enough that no investigation about a Windows switch would've been made unless a Microsoft account manager was working with them. Especially if porting the software was trivial when moving to Linux.


    • Too bad they replaced expensive UNIX computers with Linux ones. Same ole' same ole' around business these days. Hardly news worthy. Maybe in the Wall Street Journal but not a news for nerds/stuff that matters.
  • Well of course they're going to use linux.
    Can you imagine the price of all those new Windows XP licences they would have to buy to replace all those damaged computers?

  • Don't tell the joke about the cars and OSes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Grd. Adm. Thrawn ( 619434 ) on Monday October 21, 2002 @07:34PM (#4500602)
    It won't be funny, but watch, someone will do it anyway

  • Well, its a good thing they chose Linux instead of Windows.

    Now they won't have to worry about the system crashing before the car

  • Windows is much better in crashing.
  • This is the one time were Linux users are happy that their OS is crashing.
  • Finally Bill Gates found the way to hit Linus with a bus. errr, no, literally, no... err, did you say Linux and crash? That's an oxymoron guy, surely, Billy is behind the scenes.

    Err... yes!, Linux?, crash?, Crysler?, Linus doesn't write in linux-kernel for a few days... Oh my god, it's true. They hit Linus!!!

  • It said in the article that 18 simultaneous impacts can be conducted at once. Apart from emulating an autobahn pile-up, why do they want to do that ?

    • Re:Multiple Crashes. (Score:3, Informative)

      by joib ( 70841 )
      Chrysler is a big company, so they certainly have many projects going on at the same time. By centralizing on one big cluster they can increase utilization compared to each department needing simulation capabilities having its own minicluster. So what the article probably means is that at the same time they can run 18 different simulations each using on average 12 cpus (108*2/18).

      It's the same on (almost) all supercomputers. They have lots of users, but most users don't use that many cpus for their jobs. Take me, for example. On the supercomputer where I have an account there are 512 power4 cpus. Usually I use 8 or 16 cpus for my simulations, and so do almost all the other people using the same machine. About the only time the entire supercomputer is reserved for one job is when they're benchmarking it, which as you certainly can imagine isn't done so often.
  • Three developers were driving down the road when their car stops dead.

    They sit in the car and the Unix developer sayes "I think it's a problem with the core of the car, the engine. It can probably be fixed with a little bit of tinkering."

    The Apple developer sayes "No, I think that what ever is wrong must be a proprietary problem that we shouldn't mess with. Let's just have it towed to the manufacturer and wait until they fix it."

    Then the Windows developer spoke up and said "Wait...lets close all the windows, get out of the car, get back into the car and open the windows again, that'll fix it."

  • I thought the advantage that Linux brought was that it crashed LESS than the "other" brand software...
  • OK so they're using Linux to simulate car crashes, what will they use to simulate profits?

    I think Enron used Windows.
  • Although the article doesn't really elaborate you can see that the savings are in the choice of hardware. The article did not reveal what previous hardware was used however the mention of unix implies that it was probably and SGI cluster. A quick little search on google revealed an article [tenlinks.com] where Chrysler had previously using a SGI cluster consisting of a 126 node MIPS R14000 architecture running a 600 MHz. SGI is notoriously expensive and the custom hardware that is described in the article would represent a considerable cost savings.

  • Yet another SWITCH AD! (Score:5, Funny)

    by CSG_SurferDude ( 96615 ) <wedaa AT wedaa DOT com> on Monday October 21, 2002 @09:40PM (#4501272) Homepage Journal

    Or maybe we'll see a Apple Switch Ad that features Crash Tests...

    I was testing a car crash on the PC and it was like beeeeep beep beep beep beep beeeep! And then like half of my crash test was gone, and I was like unnnhhh...? It devoured my crash test.

    It was a really good test. And then I had to test it again and I had to do it fast so it wasn't as good.

    It's kind of...

    a bummer.

    Note to moderators: It's Funny, not off-topic.

  • Aren't we past the point were Linux needs to be "adopted"? Is Linux an orphan that needs a home? Is Linux the red headed step child of operating systems? I think this shoud read "Linux Takes Over Chrysler (for vehicle simulations)".

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