Altair today announced the most significant software update release in the company’s history. All of Altair’s software products have been updated with advancements in user experience and countless new features, including intuitive workflows that empower users to streamline product development, allowing customers to get to market faster.

The software update release expands on the number of solutions available for designers, engineers, data analysts, IT and HPC professionals, facility managers, and more to drive better decisions and accelerate the pace of innovation. It broadens the scope of the new user experience, enables access to more physics, data analytics, and machine learning, and makes the Altair software delivery method more flexible and accessible.

“Our teams are always driven to develop and provide access to a range of different technologies that enable our customers to break through complex problems, and explore and discover on their own terms. This software update release is the largest collection of our applications for design, simulation, and data analytics,” said James Scapa, Chairman, Founder and chief executive officer of Altair.

Some of the most notable highlights enhance and bring new capabilities to the needs aligned to the following applications:

·   Structures

o   Altair HyperWorks™ – new interface to Altair’s solution for high-fidelity computer-aided engineering (CAE) modeling and visualization, making learning easy and productivity high

o   New subsystem entity for modular model configuration

o   Altair SimLab™ – fatigue optimization

o   Altair OptiStruct™ ­– includes the addition of new explicit solution and expanded implicit non-linear solutions including 2D axisymmetry

o   Altair SimSolid™ – includes advanced 3D seam weld connections to further improve speed

o   Altair Radioss™ – employs a dramatic reduction in runtimes for virtual drop testing of electronics devices
 

·   Fluids and Thermal

o   HyperWorks CFD – provides engineers and experienced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) specialists with the most productive CFD pre- and post-processing capabilities to-date

o   Altair AcuSolve™ – GPU acceleration yields 3-4 times increased speed while also supporting nucleate boiling, radiation, condensation/evaporation and multiphase fluid-structure interaction (FSI)

o   Altair ultraFluidX™ – includes a new, more accurate wall model and overset grid technique

o   Altair nanoFluidX™ – is three times faster than the previous version
 

·   Industrial Design and Structures

o   Altair Inspire™ integration of Altair SimSolid™ solver includes support and connector reaction forces, instantaneous reaction time modeling large PolyNURBS models, and improved geometry generation from optimization

o   Inspire Studio – advanced morphing of any geometry type
 

·   Manufacturing

o   3D printing simulation available in Inspire with new unit cell lattice generation

·   Electromagnetics and Multiphysics

o   SimLab – electric motor modeling and coupling with AcuSolve and Altair Flux™; accommodates ECAD file import (ODB++)

o   Altair Feko™ – provides a component library tightly integrated with CADFEKO

o   Altair FluxMotor™ now includes thermal and acoustics evaluation

o   Flux includes several enhancements including those for modeling iron losses and skew type motors
 

·   Systems Modeling

o   Altair Activate™ – performs multi-physics system modeling with hardware-in-the-loop and Internet of Things (IoT) for digital twin development

o   Integration of EDEM bulk material modeling with multibody dynamics simulation and hydraulics ideal for heavy equipment and agricultural applications

o   Altair MotionView™ – has a two-wheeler vehicle dynamics library for motorcycles and scooters

o   Altair Compose™ – OpenMatrix Language available in Jupyter Notebook

o   Altair Embed™ – supports three additional target and two additional target families from ST Micro, VRTOS code modifications for MISRA compliance, and OpenCV DNN (Deep Neural Network) module integration

 

·   Data Analytics

o   Recent release of Altair Panopticon™ – platform for user-driven monitoring of real-time data – includes major update of cloud-based deployment, enabling users to build, modify, and share custom-designed functions and content easily via standard web browsers; hotfix to enable deployment at Nomura

o   Altair Knowledge Hub™ – improved messages for troubleshooting and robustness; security hardening; more flexible Windows deployment; deployment on Azure; transformations including continuous binning and lookup join (refactoring for performance) and more 

o   Altair Monarch™ – complex Excel input support – "Excel Trapping"; PDF extraction improvements; user experience and UI improvements; enhanced column list and more

o   Altair Knowledge Studio™ – new features including Keras model, model stacking, and pivot table; variable transformations node improvements with dataset and variable preview and re-ordering 

·        Smart Product Development

o   Altair SmartWorks™ – major re-architecture of the edge orchestration and augmentation; ability to validate the edge application in real-time environments and deploy at scale 

·        HPC and Cloud

o   Altair Access™ – updated “work from home” features; more responsive 3D remote visualization; internationalization; better job resource charts; two-factor authentication and single sign-on; share support on mobile 

o   Altair Accelerator™ – EDA workload support on AWS (with Rapid Scaling), Microsoft Azure, and GCP; 10x faster for dynamic workloads; container improvements; REST query API; IPv6

o   Altair PBS Professional® – scalability improvements towards exascale; Cray Shasta support; container enhancements for converged AI+HPC workloads; better system maintenance support. (MT)

Tier 1 automotive supplier Marelli has received the ‘Commendable’ honour in the ‘Engineering Product of the Year’ category at the Digital Engineering Awards 2026. The ceremony, hosted by L&T Technology Services in association with ISG and CNBC-TV18, was held in Boston, USA, on 12 March 2026.

The award recognises the role of Marelli’s Zone Control Unit (ZCU) in the transition towards software-defined vehicles.

The ZCU is designed to replace traditional domain-based architectures with a platform that delivers cross-domain control through a single Electronic Control Unit (ECU). This system simplifies vehicle electrical and electronic (E/E) layouts and enables communication across vehicle zones. By reducing the number of dedicated ECUs and streamlining wiring, the ZCU reduces wiring harness weight by 30 per cent compared to existing systems.

It is built on the EliteZone platform and supports ethernet capabilities, hardware accelerators, and remote-control protocols. It features processing performance up to 6 KDMIPS, two-port Gigabit Ethernet, and more than 20 CAN and LIN interfaces. The unit also includes an integrated hypervisor and data routing engine, supporting functional safety up to ASIL D standards.

For power management, the ZCU accommodates 48V system requirements with dedicated power input and efuse-protected output. The hardware uses a service-oriented architecture (SOA), which decouples software development from hardware. This approach allows modules to subscribe to services exposed by the ECU, supporting feature updates throughout the vehicle lifecycle and shortening development cycles for manufacturers.

Ravi Tallapragada, President, Marelli’s Electronics business, stated, “This recognition for our Zone Control Unit makes me and all of us at Marelli truly proud. It reflects the impact of our work on supporting the industry’s transition toward software-defined vehicles. By bringing cross-domain control into a single, scalable platform, our ZCU enables vehicle makers to innovate at speed. I want to congratulate our global engineering teams, whose dedication and expertise made this achievement possible.”

drivebuddyAI has been awarded a patent for a facial recognition system designed for vehicle environments. The technology identifies drivers in moving vehicles to monitor duty hours and manage fatigue.

The system uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to recognise faces under varying lighting conditions and when drivers wear accessories such as caps or mufflers. This replaces manual or key-based identification methods to track driving time for wage calculations and safety compliance.

The patented technology is integrated into several areas of the company's product suite:

• Driver Profiling: Used in the 'CARDs' scoring method.
• Alert Systems: Provision of language-specific alerts based on driver identification.
• Performance Monitoring: Real-time tracking of duty time and driver behaviour.
• Compliance: Alignment with Indian government discussions on enforcing rest periods for commercial vehicle operators.

The company holds 15 patents in AI vision, edge processing, and risk assessment. Its systems meet India's AIS-184 driver monitoring standards and the European Union's General Safety Regulation (GSR) 2144.

Nisarg Pandya, CEO, drivebuddyAI, said, “Driver fatigue remains one of the most critical yet under-addressed causes of highway accidents. Our patented technology ensures that fleets know exactly who is driving, for how long, and under what conditions. This creates a foundation for enforcing safe driving limits while also enabling continuous learning and improvement for drivers. This milestone reflects our commitment to delivering technology built from the ground up and leveraging AI to enable safer and smarter driving solutions.”

Servotech Renewable Power System and Electra EV have been granted a patent by the Indian Patent Office for an ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Device’. The technology is designed to provide charging solutions for low-voltage electric vehicles (EVs).

The device addresses interoperability challenges by enabling fast DC charging for low-voltage EVs with sub-200V DC platforms. This includes vehicles based on GB/T Bharat DC 001 standards. The technology allows these vehicles to utilise widely deployed, conventional high-voltage CCS2 charging infrastructure.

The patented device incorporates power management and voltage conversion systems to facilitate energy transfer to low-voltage battery platforms. The primary focus of the technology is on vehicle segments such as small commercial EVs and pick-up vans, which are used for urban and last-mile mobility.

Key features of the technology include:

• Interoperability: Enables sub-200V DC platforms to use CCS2 fast-charging stations.
• Compatibility: Supports vehicles adhering to GB/T Bharat DC 001 standards.
• Energy Management: Advanced voltage conversion to ensure safe battery charging.
• Safety: Integrated protocols for stable energy transfer.

The joint ownership of the patent by Servotech and Electra EV is intended to accelerate the development of charging infrastructure for small commercial fleets. The demand for such flexible solutions has increased as adoption of low-voltage EVs grows within the Indian logistics and transport sectors.

Arun Handa, CTO, Servotech Renewable Power System, said, “Securing this patent is an important step in strengthening our innovation-led approach to EV charging technology. Low-voltage electric vehicles are a key part of India’s mobility ecosystem, particularly in segments like small commercial fleets. This patented device has been designed to ensure safe, efficient, and reliable charging for such vehicles, helping make EV adoption through improved charging compatibility.”

NXP Semiconductors has launched the NXP CoreRide Z248, a zonal reference system combining 48V energy distribution with data routing. The hardware-software foundation is designed to assist OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in transitioning to software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures by reducing integration effort and development cycles.

The Z248 is built on NXP’s S32K5 microcontroller series, featuring on-chip Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). This technology is intended to accelerate electronic control unit (ECU) programming during manufacturing and over-the-air (OTA) updates.

The system integrates several 48V-capable components and networking tools:

• Power Management: Includes eFuses, Power Management Integrated Circuits (PMICs), and DC-DC converters for energy conversion and protection.
• Networking: Features Ethernet PHY and CAN transceivers for data handling.
• Software Stack: A pre-validated stack managing smart data energy network (SDEN) functions such as impedance monitoring and diagnostics.
• Safety: Built-in functional safety and real-time responsiveness for zonal processing.

NXP stated it has validated the Z248 through system-level tests focusing on low-power modes and wake-up response times. The package includes a Board Support Package (BSP) with integrated software from partners including GLIWA for performance monitoring, Green Hills Software for compilers and Vector for embedded tools.

The reference system is designed for deployment across internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid, and battery electric vehicle (BEV) platforms. It supports ECU consolidation by managing energy distribution and data protocols within a single architecture.

Sebastien Clamagirand, SVP and General Manager, Automotive Systems & Platforms, NXP Semiconductors, said, “The NXP CoreRide zonal reference system Z248 delivers a performance-optimized, scalable 48 V foundation that intelligently fuses power, data and software, while dramatically simplifying system integration, reducing time to market, and enabling OEMs to focus on vehicle differentiation and long‑term value creation.”

Peter Gliwa, CEO and Founder, GLIWA, added, “NXP understood that the eco-system, the tooling around a new platform is essential for its success. With our Analysis Suite T1 built into the NXP CoreRide Z248 zonal reference system, high efficiency, proper timing analysis and timing verification are very well addressed.”

Jochen Rein, SVP Business Unit Software Platform, Vector, stated, “The combination of the NXP CoreRide platform and Vector’s software foundation provides a robust basis for next‑generation zonal architectures. We enable our joint customers to reduce their time- to-market due to a pre-integrated and highly optimized software stack.”