Solver Unit Draw
A description of the licensing for the solvers.
- Solver Name
- Functionality
- AcuSolve
- Finite-Element Navier-Stokes CFD Solver (includes AcuFwh, AcuTrace, AcuView)
- EDEM
- Discrete Element (DEM) Solver for bulk materials
- Feko
- High-frequency Electromagnetics Solvers (includes WinProp, WRAP, and newFASANT)
- Flux
- Low-frequency Electromagnetics and Electromechanical Solvers
- HyperForm
- One Step Stamping Solver
- Manufacturing Solver
- Mold-filling, Casting, Extrusion Process Solvers
- MotionSolve
- Multibody System Solver
- nanoFluidX
- Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) Solver, GPU-based
- OptiStruct
- Structural and Multi-Physics Solver and Optimizer
- Radioss
- Explicit Structural and Multi-Physics Solver
- ultraFluidX
- Lattice-Boltzmann CFD Solver, GPU-based
In applications where solvers are an integral part of the solution, the unit draw is determined by the GUI application. These applications are Inspire, ElectroFlo, PollEx PCB, Seam, SimLab, and SimSolid. The unit draw is documented in sections Desktop Applications Unit Draw, Inspire Family Unit Draw, and Standalone Applications Unit Draw above.
GPU-based CFD solvers nanoFluidX and ultraFluidX are licensed based on the number of GPUs used per job.
- In-App Licensing
- HPC Licensing
Solver In-App Licensing
In-App licensing draws Altair Units per job. The number of Altair Units required to run solver jobs varies depending on the number of the CPU cores and GPU cards, and how many jobs are running concurrently.
Solvers started from inside AcuConsole, EDEM, Feko (including WinProp, WRAP, and newFASANT), Flux, HyperForm, HyperXtrude, HyperMesh, HyperWorks, and MotionView use In-App licensing.
GPU acceleration is implemented for AcuSolve, EDEM, Feko, and OptiStruct. For AcuSolve, Feko, and OptiStruct, one GPU card is counted as four additional CPU-cores; for EDEM, one GPU card is counted as 16 CPU cores. For example, if running an OptiStruct job using 4 cores plus 1 GPU, it will be considered as 8 cores.
Number of Cores | AcuSolve, AltairManufacturingSolver, FekoSolver, FluxSolver, HyperFormSolver, MotionSolve, OptiStructFEA, Radioss, WinPropSolver | EDEMSolver, MotionSolve (w/optimization), OptiStruct |
---|---|---|
1-4 | 30 | 50 |
5-8 | 35 | 55 |
9-16 | 40 | 60 |
17-32 | 50 | 70 |
33-64 | 60 | 80 |
65-128 | 70 | 90 |
129-256 | 80 | 100 |
257-512 | 90 | 110 |
513-1024 | 100 | 120 |
Each duplication | +10 | +10 |
On top of the primary license draw, a decay function is implemented. The decay reduces the total license draw, if multiple jobs of the same solver are running concurrently off the same license server. The decay factor is a multiplier applied to the regular license draw of a solver job. See table below.
Once a job has finished, the next job will backfill into the vacated slot and the same multiplier is applied as for the previous job. Once a job has started, the checked-out unit amount for that job will not change.
- Job Number
- Decay Factor
- 1
- 1.0
- 2...10
- 0.9
- 11...20
- 0.8
- 21...30
- 0.7
- 31-40
- 0.6
- 41-50
- 0.5
- 50+
- 0.4
- At the first invoke of a solver, the AUs level against applications already running on the same machine.
- At the first invoke of a different solver, the units level.
- Launching additional jobs of a solver already running, stacks the additional units.
- When the leveled job finishes, the next invoke levels again.
For example, if the user launches HyperMesh first (21 AUs), and then launches Radioss (30 AUs), 30 AUs will be drawn. If the same user on the same machine adds an OptiStruct job (50 AUs requested), the total units drawn is 50 AUs due to leveling. If the user now adds a second OptiStruct job, the total units drawn will only be increased to 95 AUs (1.0*50+0.9*50 AUs).
Solver HPC Licensing
The Solver HPC license draws units on a per-CPU core basis. The unit draw is determined by the total number of cores for a solver according to a lookup table.
HPC Licensing applies in all situations where a solver is not started from inside an Altair GUI application and a SolverHPC license feature is present.
The following table applies to the license features: AcuSolve, AltairManufacturingSolver, EDEMSolver, FekoSolver (including WinPropSolver), FluxSolver, MotionSolve, OptiStructFEA, and Radioss. If OptiStruct runs an optimization (OptiStruct license feature), the draw per core is multiplied by 1.5 for a given job. Each license feature follows its own core count. This unit draw stacks.
Number of Cores | Draw per Core | Cumulative Draw Range* |
---|---|---|
1-4 | 30.00 | |
5-36 | 1.60 | 31.60 - 81.20 |
37-70 | 0.80 | 82.00 - 108.40 |
71-200 | 0.60 | 109.00 - 186.40 |
201-400 | 0.40 | 186.80 - 266.40 |
401-800 | 0.30 | 266.70 - 386.40 |
801-1600 | 0.20 | 386.60 - 546.40 |
1601-3200 | 0.15 | 546.55 - 786.40 |
3201-6400 | 0.10 | 786.50 - 1106.40 |
6401-10000 | 0.05 | 1106.45 - 1286.40 |
>10000 (20000) | 0.04 | >1286.40 (1686.40) |
*There may be slight variations due to numerical round-off.
For example, if three simultaneous Radioss jobs are running requiring a total of 48 CPU cores, the total unit draw will be 90.8 (= 30 + 32x1.6 + 12x0.8).
In addition to the unit draw of solvers during runtime, AcuPrep, Feko, OptiStruct, and Radioss Starter check for the existence of a license during initial check and preparation runs. These license checks do not draw any units.
Leveling of interactive applications is not affected. For example, a user on a workstation uses HyperMesh, HyperView (21 AUs leveled) plus two 4-core OptiStructFEA (36 AUs), a (maximum) total of 57 AUs is drawn.
Modified Solver Licensing
A description of modified licensing for the solvers.
SolverHPC | SolverInApp | Behavior |
---|---|---|
Yes | Yes | In-App from GUIs, Elsewhere HPC. |
Yes | No | HPC only. |
No | Yes | In-App where HPC licensing denied. |
No | No | In-App only. |
Licensing of GPU-based CFD Solvers
A description of GPU-based licensing for CFD solvers.
GPU | nanoFluidX | ultraFluidX |
---|---|---|
1 | 25 | 50 |
2 | 50 | 100 |
3-4 | 100 | 150 |
5-8 | 150 | 200 |
9-16 | 200 | 250 |
Each duplication | +50 | +50 |