Altair Introduces Display Manager for Remote Visualization of Big Data

SALT LAKE CITY -- Troy-based Altair Engineering Inc. Wednesday unveiled Display Manager, a new portal for the remote visualization of extremely large models developed from so-called "big data" resources.

The announcement came at the Supercomputing 2012 show in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Display Manager, which will become generally available in the near future, enables users to run graphics-intensive applications on their cluster while visualizing those applications on their desktop.

Because applications run directly from the data center, users can take advantage of shared, powerful, GPU-enabled hardware in the data center -- and use their Web browser to view, edit, interact with and control the graphical apps remotely. As a result, the enterprise can buy fewer high-end graphics systems, and avoid purchasing a costly high-end graphics desktop for each engineer. Display Manager enables sharing of HPC-class systems housed in the data center (or in an HPC cluster) among all the engineers in the enterprise.

Because Display Manager shows graphical applications directly from the cluster via a browser, Big Data files remain on the cluster, with no copying required, for faster, easier, more efficient operation. This also increases data security, since proprietary data remains inside the data center at all times.

"Remote visualization is a key Big Data technology, allowing huge datasets to be manipulated from thin clients," said Bill Nitzberg, chief technology officer for PBS Works at Altair.  "Display Manager leverages Altair's deep knowhow in modeling and visualization from our globally acclaimed HyperWorks suite to deliver an amazing remote visualization experience directly from the Web browser, without the need to install any apps on the desktop."

In addition, multiple users can collaborate directly from within Display Manager by simply sharing sessions. Authorized users can all view and control a single session without downloading any files. This virtual-team productivity feature can save the costs associated with expensive face-to-face meetings and eliminate the need for multiple users in different sites to download Big Data files.

Display Manager can adjust fidelity to match network bandwidth and latency, continuously providing real-time responsiveness, whether operating on a LAN or a wide-area network. Its open architecture is compatible with any of the user's existing Altair or third-party applications; no additional application investments are required and no modifications are necessary.

Display Manager can be used as a standalone technology or can be seamlessly integrated with Compute Manager in an easy-to-use fashion for enterprises with large HPC clusters.

For a full list of live demos being presented by PBS Works at SC12, visit www.pbsworks.com.

PBS Works, Altair's suite of on-demand cloud computing technologies, allows enterprises to maximize ROI on existing infrastructure assets. PBS Works is the most widely implemented software environment for managing grid, cloud, and cluster computing resources worldwide. Its flagship product, PBS Professional, allows enterprises to easily share distributed computing resources across geographic boundaries. With additional tools for portal-based submission, analytics, and data management, the PBS Works suite is a comprehensive solution for optimizing HPC environments.