[Geoqus] new platform strategy of ABAQUS

[Andrea Hampel]

Dear ABAQUS-user,

I would like to draw your attention to the latest decision of ABAQUS
to support the pre/postprocessors CAE and VIEWER from version 6.5 on
(fall 2004) for Windows XP/Linux and HP platforms only. Their decision 
is based on a trend recognized in the industry to change from UNIX 
workstations to PCs. 
I feel that these plans of ABAQUS have far-reaching consequences for
academic users since most institutes run ABAQUS on UNIX workstations 
(typically SUN or SGI) due to the high system stability and security 
standards and the ability to handle large data sets (I think we all 
know the performance of Microsoft in these fields...). ABAQUS' decision
forces academic users to either, within one year, buy/install PCs 
appropriatly equipped to run ABAQUS or to transfer input and output 
data sets between workstations and PCs back and forth or to remain at 
version 6.4 (but to pay the same annual license fees). Especially for 
Earth science models, which easily reach large file sizes, the first two 
possibilities, to use PCs or to transfer the files between UNIX and PCs 
are inefficient and time-consuming (and, given the financial situation of 
many institutes, unaffordable).
In their letter, ABAQUS asked the users to express their opinions about 
their new strategy. We, the Institutes of Geology and of Biomechanics in Bern,
decided that we will write to ABAQUS to express our concerns about their 
plans and to emphasize the importance of (at least) ABAQUS/Viewer for UNIX. 
I would like to invite and encourage you to join us (just send an email to 
andrea(at)geo.unibe.ch) or to contact Marc Schrank (ABAQUS Product Manager; 
marc.schrank(at)abaqus.com) or your local ABAQUS representative directly. 
The more academic users we are, the higher the chance to be heard! Therefore, 
I would like to ask also those, who find that the announced changes will not 
be important for themselves, to join,too, so that ABAQUS will remain fully 
available and affordable for academic users in future.

Cheers,
Andrea
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Dr. Andrea Hampel

Institute of Geological Sciences
University of Berne
Baltzerstrasse 1
CH-3012 Berne
Switzerland

andrea.hampel at geo.unibe.ch
Phone: ++41 (0)31 631 87 60
Fax: ++41 (0)31 631 48 43
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