OPEN CASCADE uses Intel Threading Building Blocks for multi-threaded optimization of its CAD/CAE software development platform

OPEN CASCADE is an Information Technology company, providing services in the domain of scientific and technical computing, particularly in the integration of simulation tools. For its customers, OPEN CASCADE develops specific solutions integrating its know-how with its own Open Source tools, or with any types of information tools.

New Tasks Require Multi-Threaded Software

CAD/CAE software is traditionally complex and substantially relies on proprietary code developed for years and even decades. At the same time, CAD/CAE software customers continue to expect new capabilities from these applications, which then drive a continuous need for greater performance. With the introduction of multicore hardware, software can increase its performance through parallel execution of computationally intensive tasks. However, this may require significant modification of the software. Thus, CAD/CAE software initially developed during the epoch of single-core processors requires significant investment in order to take advantage of new multicore hardware.

Freedom of Choice
There is a wide range of existing solutions available today to help to simplify this investment. Still, some developers choose to design and develop their own tools to support multi-threading. When choosing a solution, it is important to evaluate carefully all aspects of every given method cost of implementation and maintenance, availability, scalability, robustness, etc.

Choosing a Proven Technology

First of all, OPEN CASCADE focused on enabling parallel work of one of the fundamental algorithms tessellation of surfaces, which is used primarily for 3D display of CAD objects. Following its study of several different solutions, OPEN CASCADE decided to adopt Intel Threading Building Blocks (Intel TBB) to multi-thread its Open CASCADE Technology libraries. This includes both parallel execution of the tessellation algorithm using tbb::parallel_for_each() and usage of Intel TBBs scalable memory allocator throughout the library. Intel TBBs allocator superseded an obsolete memory manager that was essentially sequential and caused a performance bottleneck discovered with the help of Intel Parallel Studio.

Press Release - Page 1 of 2

March 2011

This solution has proven to be not only effective, but also extremely easy to implement the code changes necessary to use Intel TBB are localized in a couple of classes and leave the code looking natural and elegant. Open CASCADE Technology version 6.4 released in October 2010 made these enhancements available for the first time. Since March 2011 when Open CASCADE Technology public version 6.5 was released this solution is available to the whole Open Source community as well.

Benefits of Intel TBB Use in Open CASCADE Technology

Using Intel TBB helped OPEN CASCADE to improve the performance and scalability of their application. Intel TBB was also easier than other solutions to implement because it is available on all of the platforms that Open CASCADE Technology supports. By using a proven technology from an industry leader OPEN CASCADE was able to continue focusing on its core competence (CAD/CAM/CAE, numerical simulation, and PLM) without becoming experts in software parallelism. Moreover, this solution is future-proof: algorithms that make use of Intel TBB will continue to scale automatically when upgrading to new multicore systems. OPEN CASCADE customers with multicore hardware have already experienced immediate performance gains when upgrading to Open CASCADE Technology version 6.4.

A Growing Relationship between Intel and OPEN CASCADE

By integrating Intel TBB into its numerical simulation platform, OPEN CASCADE reinforces its relationship with Intel that started in 2008 when OPEN CASCADE joined the Intel Parallel Studio beta program. OPEN CASCADE has used a variety of Intel Parallel Studio components from Intel TBB to tools to check for correctness and tune performance of its code Intel Parallel Inspector and Intel Parallel Amplifier. Adopting Intel TBB saves significant time by reducing our need to invest in the development of similar multi-threading technology from scratch. We are going to continue improving our algorithms by providing multi-threaded execution, which is easy and straightforward with Intel TBB. Andrey Betenev, Open CASCADE Technology Manager. We are delighted that OPEN CASCADE has selected Intel Threading Building Blocks, a popular part of the Intel Parallel Building Blocks, as the software parallelism solution for their flagship open source platform. Their usage clearly demonstrates the value of utilizing Intel PBB solutions in the CAD/CAM/CAE industry and we look forward to seeing other exciting developments from OPEN CASCADE in the future. Sanjiv Shah, Performance, Analysis and Threading Manager, Intel Corporation.

Press Release - Page 2 of 2

March 2011