Use of mini-computers for large scale structural analysis programs

One of the major new developments in computing technology is the mini-computer. This paper presents the results of the implementation of the ANSYS computer program (a large-scale structural analysis system) on a mini-computer.The implementation of ANSYS started with an evaluation of the existing and proposed mini-computer hardware and software systems, relative to a set of criteria derived from the structural software requirements.After benchmarking several systems to compare the claimed performances with the actual performance, the system which most nearly met the requirements for the ANSYS program was selected and ordered.The configuration chosen for this development machine is illustrated and variations from the development configuration which would be desirable for a production environment are discussed.The results of the implementation of ANSYS on the selected mini-computer system are presented. Included in the presentation are run times, run costs, accuracy of results and computer storage requirements.Finally, this paper discusses the future directions which will be pursued in this development effort. Included are discussions of the interface between the mini-computer and a larger central computer, the limits on problem size imposed by core memory and solution time and suggestions for the improvement of the performance of structural problems in a mini-computer environment.