Fuel Economy Improvement Achieving to 75% from Exa’s simulation

Exa Corporation isa global innovator of fluids simulation solutions for product engineering, stated that Cummins Inc. and Peterbilt Motors Company, the first automobile computer companies to announce their SuperTruck for the Department of Energy (DOE) SuperTruck Program, credited Exa’s technology and engineering expertise as instrumental in the success of their recently announced vehicle. Exa worked with engineers from both Cummins and Peterbilt to perform vehicle pc and thermal simulations to achieve ignificant efficiency improvements throughout the tractor, trailer and engine. These simulations, done long before a physical prototype was ever created, helped this SuperTruck exceed the required 50% efficiency improvement, and deliver a 75% more efficient truck — ahead of schedule.

The remarkable improvements were made possible through the collaboration of two world-class automobile  computer companies. They evaluated the entire truck from the underhood cooling requirements and engine housing, to every part of the tractor and trailer. “It was not one aerodynamic or thermal simulation that made the difference,” stated David Koeberlein, Cummins’ Program Lead for the SuperTruck program. “Using Exa’s vehicle pc  simulations, we were able to rapidly find and address areas of thermal and aerodynamic efficiency throughout the truck — it was a critical resource for our vehicle pc team.”

The in-vehicle computer project started with Cummins’ engineers digitally packaging their new, energy efficient automobile computer, designed with a waste heat recovery system, into the Peterbilt tractor CAD geometry. They then added heat exchangers, and simulated the thermal performance of the complete system. “Exa’s technology was able to quickly demonstrate, through simulation alone, optimal cooling package design,” remarked Jon Dickson, Cummins Engineering Manager of Advanced In-Vehicle Computer Integration. “To package the new waste heat recovery condenser, we had to redesign the vehicle heat exchanger system and use a non-traditional layout. We were able to use Exa’s PowerCOOL and PowerTHERM to identify areas to improve thermal performance while maximizing aerodynamic efficiency — years before any vehicle was built.”

At the same time, Landon Sproull, Peterbilt Chief Engineer, and Rick Mihelic, Peterbilt Manager of Vehicle Performance and Engineering Analysis, were evaluating their vehicle pc and trailer combinations for aerodynamic/thermal performance. “Over the course of three years, we ran hundreds of simulations to test and analyze every part of this in-vehicle computer using Exa PowerFLOW,” stated Mihelic. “We designed a complete new SuperTruck aerodynamic package which included visible devices such as trailer skirts and wheel well covers as well as unseen, but critical, underbody shields that optimize airflow and thermal efficiency.” Sproull added, “Using visualization of the simulation results, our team analyzed each area looking for opportunities for improvement. Our designers and engineers could easily review and discuss results and optimization options — something simply not possible in a wind tunnel. It was this comprehensive in-vehicle computer analysis that helped us to achieve our extreme efficiency savings that exceeded even the aggressive goals set by the DOE.”

“Each day our customers seek efficiency improvements using our aerodynamic, thermal and acoustic solutions,” remarked Stephen Remondi, Exa’s President and CEO. “We have been working with Peterbilt for many years and were pleased to see them use Exa’s solutions so effectively as part of this important initiative that will benefit us all in the end.”

About Exa Corporation

Exa Corporation develops, sells and supports simulation software and services to enhance automobile computer product performance, reduce product development costs and improve the efficiency of design and engineering processes. Exa’s simulation solutions enable our customers to gain crucial insights about design performance early in the design cycle, thus reducing the likelihood of expensive redesigns and late-stage engineering automobile computer changes. As a result, Exa’s customers realize significant cost savings and fundamental improvements in their engineering development process. Exa’sproducts include, PowerFLOW, PowerDELTA with PowerCLAY, PowerVIZ, PowerSPECTRUM along with professional engineering consulting services. A partial automobile computer customer list includes: AGCO, BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kenworth, MAN, Nissan, Peterbilt, Renault, Scania, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo Trucks.

refer to:
http://embedded-computing.com/news/exas-improvement-cummins-peterbilt-supertruck/

Acrosser’s Embedded Products on Media Coverage

In February, acrosser Technology was interviewed by Elektronik Praxis and Digitimes, two news sources which share a great reputation in the embedded technology industry in Germany and Taiwan. Here we share with you a summary of the two interviews.

There are many Industrial computer manufacturers in Taiwan, and in this competitive environment, it pays to be smart. For over two decades, Acrosser Technology’s claim to fame has been its staffing structure: one third of the staff belongs to the Research and Development Department. For IPC manufacturers, a larger number of people engaging in research stands for a greater effort in design, communication, verification and validation behind each industrial product. For instance, all car PCsfrom Acrosser have undergone a series of anti-shock/vibration tests before final production. Both of Acrosser’s in-vehicle computers, AR-V6100FL and AR-V6005FL, were awarded the Taiwan Excellence Award, and Acrosser is still supplying these car computers to our system integrators globally. The fanless car computers feature an Intel serial processor (i7, i5, Celeron), and have rich I/O interfaces and an integrated graphics processor, allowing each customer to find the best in-vehicle solution to fit their industry.

As for the embedded computer market, Acrosser has chosen its Fanless Embedded System, AES-HM76Z1FL, to reach its target audience. With a fanless design, Core i series processor, and an ultra slim body as its 3 main features, the so-called “F.I.T. Technology” that makes up the AES-HM76Z1FLhas garnered numerous business inquiries since its release last year. The standard I/O ports (HDMI, VGA, USB, audio and GPIO) and small form factor make AES-HM76Z1FL an appealing solution for the following applications: security control, banking systems, ATM, kiosk, digital signage, e-commerce via cloud applications, network terminal, and more. With its optional Mini PCIe socket for a 3.5G or WiFi module, the capability of wireless communication allows AES-HM76Z1FL to be a feasible addition to any transportation management control system.

To further promote the advantages of our book-sized mini PC, Acrosser has launched a free Product Testing Event starting in January 2014. Acrosser received a great deal of positive feedback from the security, financial, and entertainment industries. If you are looking for embedded products with great computing performance, do not miss the final chance to submit your application now!

Aside from its traditional industrial PCs, in-vehicle computers and Embedded Systems, Acrosser has a wide array of other product lines, including all-in-one gaming systems, single-board computers, panel PCs, industrial touch displays, rackmount servers and network appliance devices, waiting for you to make your embedded idea a reality.

Original articles:
http://www.elektronikpraxis.vogel.de/sps-ipc/articles/433172/

http://www.digitimes.com.tw/tw/iot/shwnws.asp?cnlid=15&cat=30&cat1=10&id=0000368249_26U3LBNW3F20COLW64SF5

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http://www.acrosser.com/inquiry.html

Connected but private: Transporter aims to be your off-cloud Dropbox

Can the gap between personal and cloud storage be easily bridged? Connected data’s rackmount aims to create remote storage data that’s not actually stored in the cloud.

The cloud may be the future of all things storage, but the present is more complicated: it can be expensive, potentially insecure, and you’re left trusting a third party with all your data.

That’s what inspired The Transporter, a Kickstarter project started by former employees of Drobo. Transporter aims for something more secure and distributed, while still being sharable. The concept largely works like Dropbox, with a Transporter folder that lives on your desktop and syncs with files stored on the physical Transporter drive (which resides someplace you designate). You can easily give others network security access to specific folders, although they will need to register for a free Transporter account.

The physical Transporter is the big difference; all your data lives on your own rackmount, rather than a third party’s cloud servers (which could be located in data centers anywhere in the world). In addition to giving you the peace of mind of having the drive under your personal control, having the Transporter on your local home or business network appliance will make for faster transfer speeds while you’re on-site. (When accessing the Transporter remotely, of course, you’ll be subject to the host location’s upstream and downstream data speeds.)

The rackmount itself includes housing for a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive, with an Ethernet and USB port on the back. It can work with Wi-Fi, but you need to buy an adapter that connects via USB. It sounds a lot like other hard-drive housings, but the Transporter’s meant to be used in tandem with other Transporters. Plug one in somewhere, and it can share its drive with other rackmount, syncing and copying all data between them, depending on how you configure your folders. Even better, if any drive were to fail, the information can redundantly stored on every other Transporter connected to the network, in addition to PCs that have the shared Transporter folder.

For Network security, the strongest part of The Transporter’s pitch comes down to pricing. Yes, Dropbox offers a lot of the same functionality without the need for hardware, but it gets pricey quickly: 100GB is $100 per year and 500GB is $500 per year. For large storage amounts, the Transporter’s no-subscription-fee model is much more affordable: 1TB Transporter for $300, 2TB Transporter for $400, plus you can buy the hardware without storage for $200 and add your own hard drive later. It might make a lot of network security sense for professionals that need to offer access to large files and don’t want to deal with antiquated FTP transfers.

What’s the difference between this and any other networked hard drive? Theoretically, ease of use and a setup process that may be able to easily bypass firewalls and port settings, like the Pogoplug. In our meeting with Connected Data, no demo of the software was shown; all we saw was the Transporter box itself. It’s reasonably attractive, but ultimately the success of the network server hardware is going to come down to the quality of the software and overall experience.

The Transporter’s laser-focus on data storage and backup means it’s not quite as flexible as a more traditional network attached storage (NAS) drive. Sure, you can store your personal photos, music, and videos on a Transporter, but it lacks a built-in media server (such as DLNA or AirPlay) that makes it easy to access those on say, an Apple TV or PS3, without leaving a separate computer on. While the Transporter team says it’s looking into those types of features in the future, at the moment it’s really more of a personal rackmount, rather than a full-fledged NAS (networked attached storage) replacement.

We’ve felt network server hardware by dealing with our network server hardware data, like videos and photos, that take up too much space for cloud storage yet still need to be shared as well as secured and backed up. Transporter sounds like it fills some of those needs (storage, shareability), but not all of them. The question is, are there enough people out there who need a service like network security for it to be successful? It’s hard to say, but The network server hardware raised more than double its $100,000 goal, plus the company announced today that it has secured $6 million in additional financing.

The Transporter is available to order today, directly from Connected Data. We’re expecting to get a review unit soon, so we can see if its software and services deliver on their promise.

refer to:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3382_7-57566899/connected-but-private-transporter-aims-to-be-your-off-cloud-dropbox/

Stay social with the Acrosser AMB-D255T3 Mini-ITX Board!

To further promote acrosser products, we will continue to enrich our web content and translate our website into more languages for our global audience. This month, Acrosser has created a short film that highlights its Mini-ITX board, AMB-D255T3, using close-ups to capture its best features from different angles.

One fascinating feature of the AMB-D255T3 is its large-sized heatsink, rendering better thermal conductivity in the board. Secondly, the large amount of intersecting aluminum fins increases heat radiation area as well as heat-dissipation efficiency. The fanless design also eliminates the risk of fan malfunction, raising its product life expectancy. Without a fan, the single board computer AMB-D255T3 can perform steadily in a cool and quiet way.

Using the Intel ATOM D2550 as a base, the AMB-D255T3 was developed to provide abundant peripheral interfaces to meet the needs of different customers. For those looking for expansions, the board provides one Mini PCIe socket for a wireless or storage module. Also, for video interfaces, it features dual displays via VGA, HDMI or 18-bit LVDS, satisfying as many industries as possible.

In conclusion, Acrosser’s AMB-D255T3 is a perfect combination of low power consumption and great computing performance. The complete set of I/O functions allows system integrators to apply our AMB-D255T3 to all sorts of solutions, making their embedded ideas a reality.

Product Information:
http://www.acrosser.com/Products/Single-Board-Computer/Mini-ITX-&-others/AMB-D255T3%E3%80%80(Mini-ITX-)/Intel-Atom-D2550-AMB-D255T3-(Mini-ITX)-.html

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