Impact of CDC STAR-100 Computer on Finite Element Systems

A study is made of the impact of the projected major hardware and software features of the CDC STAR-100 computer on the overall organization and design of components of finite element structural analysis systems. The major features considered include virtual memory and the pipeline processing or streaming capability. The effective utilization of the STAR capabilities in finite element systems requires: (1) The consistent use of modular design concepts in all phases of the finite element system; and (2) the design of the different modules and processors to exploit the STAR pipeline processing capabilities. The paper concludes with two examples showing the anticipated gain in speed over the CDC 6600 to be obtained by using the STAR streaming capability. These examples are computation of element stiffness matrices and solution of banded symetric equations. In both cases order of magnitude gain in speed may be obtained.