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By Rachael King

Products Built with Some of the Most Powerful Computers in the World

Many companies now use high-speed computers to simulate how new products will perform in the real world. This kind of virtual simulation makes it faster and cheaper to get new products to market. With the new Chevrolet Cruze, for example, General Motors did a great deal of 3D modeling and simulation of that vehicle, as it does with all its products, in the virtual world. The company can even do virtual crash-testing to see how the cars will perform during collisions and how people inside them might fare in different scenarios. That information is then used to create vehicles that undergo crash-testing in the physical world. The result, says Timothy Cox, process information officer of global product development at GM, is more rigorous testing overall and a safer car. Find out which consumer products have benefited from using high-speed computing in the following slide show.

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