Chances are you know that Tecplot, Inc. is very interested in the huge wave of data that CFD is generating. Most of this data isn’t being taken advantage of by engineers because, until now, they didn’t have software that could make it easier to sort through it all. It turns out there are other industries who are finding inventive ways around the same issue.
In a December 29th article from CNN Money, the FCC is scrambling to find new spectrum to handle the rapid expansion in demand due to the growth of consumer smart phones and tablets.
Back in a March article, they discussed how 4G won’t solve 3G’s problems. That article mentioned that 4G is faster because it makes better use of the same spectrum. At Tecplot, Inc., we like the sound of that kind of innovation.
Tecplot Chorus is our solution to a similar data tsunami will lead to wonderful changes in the way engineers and scientists work. In a recent online radio show, Tecplot experts, Dr. Scott Imlay and Dr. Durrell Rittenberg, talked about how advances in computing power will change the nature of the questions being asked. The critical part of the equation is the software that can make sense out of all the data; that takes the need for total human immersion in that data tsunami away, freeing them up to learn more.
In the wireless world, there were several formats competing to be the standard in microwave delivery. The battle came down to WiMAX versus LTE (Long Term Evolution), and LTE won out. But now there are questions about LTE’s ability to handle the tsunami of growth that smart phones, tablets, and wireless modems are bringing. That wave is expected to grow about 92% per year over the next 5 years. The limiting factor for wireless carriers is the availability of spectrum. It’s a finite universe. Like the tsunami facing users of scientific visualization software, there are companies out there coming up with solutions in the face of that finite spectrum.
Innovations in software are the solution for many industries, scientific visualization software users included
The fascinating part of the CNN Money article is that innovative software engineers are now looking at solutions that will make the data that travels over this limited spectrum more efficient. For instance, by predicting what a customer wants to watch, the networks can move source video closer to the final user so as to shorten time to the viewer and limit stress on the network. By creating devices that automatically switch over to Wi-Fi when a network is near, a significant amount of traffic can be taken off the wireless network.
At Tecplot, Inc., we’re also using software to deal with the data tsunami. In the near future, engineers will not have enough time in the day to analyze hundreds of thousands of cases that increased computational power will bring them. They will have to rely more and more on software to do the work of extracting the knowledge from all that data. That’s where our software comes in; and it goes far beyond scientific visualization software.