Yes, it seems that the IT guys are sometimes a little blind to the special needs of Engineering. Many don't understand how graphic intensive our applications are. Some IT folks believe that high performance graphics is just for games, so there's no need for Engineering to have better graphic performance than what is required to run a spreadsheet.
I also ran into trouble with software updates. Unfortunately, so many Engineering applications require patches and updates, and with IT security as tight as it is, all that updating is hard for IT to tolerate.
No doubt it's great to have fast workstations. However, it's not unusual to have computer systems networked and sometimes the network administrators are more concerned about email uptime than they are about fast and secure downloads of large design files. The network has to support the design objectives of the organization as well - not just the hardware on the desktop.
Great post. More than ever engineers and engineering teams are required to work faster and smarter. Problem is sometimes, they are asked to do so with basically the same hardware and software used two, three and even five years previously. I retired from a Fortune 500 company with 32 engineers in our design department. Upgrades were tough to come by due to expense. Even added RAM was a god-send. Flat screens--forget about it. I always wondered why sales and marketing got the good "stuff" while we were relegated to the "five-year" plan. One impediment was "off-shoring". All of our CAD work was accomplished in India. I certainly hope the trend is to bring back the CAD effort and let a dedicated engineering team do ALL of the work. Maybe then there will be equipment upgrades.
Technology can go a long way toward helping people at all levels in manufacturing, and this list of technologies and solutions can help the manufacturing industry.
The next time you're churning through simulation models, manipulating 3D designs in real-time, or rendering a beautiful photo-realistic image, take a moment to think about all the work that goes on behind the scenes and be glad you don't have to worry about it.
Workstations are high-performance computers that are used for the most intensive computing tasks, such as creative design and engineering, computer modeling and analysis, and animation.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
5 
