At GM, High-Performance Computing Curbs Test Costs

General Motors has developed a system that will save them millions of dollars every year in safety tests. Using high-powered computers, they will be able to test a car’s safety using fewer trials, saving the company a fortune. The test cars cost about ten times the cost of the cars GM puts on the market, so crashing 600 of them becomes extremely costly. With these new computers, they will only have to use about 300 to 400 test cars. For a struggling company in this economy, this could not have come at a better time, and GM will use this technology to the fullest extent possible. Other companies, including Boeing, Eli Lilly and DreamWorks, are also picking up on these computers.

As stated in the article, this is a “game-changing technology.” Being able to cut expenses by such a large margin with the economy in the state that it is in is a huge upper hand for any company, let alone one that is already struggling. As with every great thing however, there is a downside to using these computers. They are very complex and the average person would not be able to work with them unless the barriers of the system are let down. Another problem with these computers is that since they can do as many calculations in a second as two thousand laptops, they also use an outrageous amount of power, up to ten megawatts. That amount of power would cost twenty million dollars per year to operate.

While the cost to operate these computers is high, GM would still end up saving money. The cost of power is also going down, meaning that they will spend less than expected on operation costs. After thoroughly reading the article and weighing the pros and cons of General Motor’s decision to switch to this new technology, I believe that they are making the right decision to go in this direction. I also think that once this technology is proven to be a better alternative, other companies will start to follow in General Motor’s footsteps and start using these computers as well. Once this technology catches on, these computers will improve at a more rapid pace, allowing for even less test cars to be used in crash trials. Even though the cost to run these computers is still expensive, most large companies will still save money by using them, so there is a good chance that the majority of good businessmen (pretty much every CEO of a large company) will begin to purchase these high-powered computers for their companies. Advances in technology will continue to happen and help companies.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2010/tc2010104_422293.htm