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20000629: computing platform choices

>From: Michael Voss <address@hidden>
>Organization: San Jose State University
>Keywords: 200006291915.e5TJFsT06463 platforms

Mike,

>I'm in the midst of planning to upgrade/change the hardware I use to
>ingest data via LDM, run GEMPAK and MCIDAS, etc. I spoke with some of
>you at the Workshop last week and I wanted to follow up on some
>considerations we discussed.

OK, ready...

>Currently, I ingest and process data on a Sun Sparc Ultra 170 (an Ultra
>1 I guess) with 128 MB of RAM. It generally runs fine, but it is
>starting to bog down. Plus I'm planning to do more processing in the
>near future.

The first thing we can say about your current machine is that it lacks
memory.

>I'm considering going the Solaris X86 route because I'm
>familiar with Solaris and it's potentially more cost effective than
>Sparc.

PC boxes are very cheap right now.  For reference, I have included
the specs for the last set of machines that we bought here at the UPC:

January 26, 2000

Base System:  Dual Intel Pentium III 700 Mhz Coppermine CPU w/256 KB Cache
                ASUS P2BDS Dual CPU SCSI ATX BX AGP Motherboard
                Single Edge Connector Pentium II Slots
              One AGP, Four PCI and Two ISA expansion slots
              (2) 16550 serial ports and (1) hight-speed parallel port
              AGP Video Support and Two Stacked USB Connectors
              Integrated PCI Ultra DMA Hard/Floppy Drive Controller
              Teac 1.44 MB Floppy Drive
              Qty 2 - High-end ball-bearing CPU Fan
              Enlight 8902 Full Tower Case with 300 Watt UL LIsted Power Supply

Memory:       756 MB SDRAM (Ztech to Provide ECC Registered Memory)

Hard Drive:   Qty 1 - 18.2 GB IBM 10,000 rpm U2W SCSI hard drive w/2 MB Cache
              Qty 1 - Enhance Technology ER4610 Removable Hard Drive Rack
                w/lock and fan

Controller:   On-board Adaptec Ultra 2 Wide Chipset
              On-board Bus Mastering Ultra DMA IdE controller supporting 4
                devices

Monitor:      21" KDS VS-21E SVGA monitor

Video Card:   8 MB ATI Xpert 98 ABP 2x video accelerator

Multimedia:   Creative Labs 52X IDE CD-ROM

Network:      3Com 905B-TX PCI network adapter with driver software

Software:     N/A (customer supplied)

I/O:          Keytronics PS2 Windows 95 keyboard
              Logitech 3-button PS2 mouse

Warranty      Technical Reference and Manuals
and Support:  Lifetime Toll-Free technical support
              24 hours of testing
              3 year Parts and Depot Labor Warranty

Price:        $5,295
 

>Questions:
>1) If I go X86, which version of Solaris is advised, 2.6, 7 or 8?

We are using 2.7 on our box that is ingesting every possible datastream
and it is working well.

>2) If I stick with Sparc, which version of Solaris is advised, 2.6, 7
>   or 8?

If you were to purchase today, I would say to go with 2.7.  This opinion
will change with time, so I would plan on 2.8.

>3) I have some Sun Ultra 10's with 128 MB of RAM. I was thinking of
>   upgrading one of these machines to be the ingester/processor with a
>   SCSI card, external SCSI drive, and 512 MB of memory. Does this sound
>   like a viable option?

This sounds reasonable.  What is the amount of disk that this machine has/will
have?

>4) I want to be able to run JAVA 3D in the future (MetApps), and from
>   what I learned at the workshop this is not always trivial. If I go X86
>   will I be able to get JAVA 3D to run, and will 512 MB of RAM be enough
>   to run it effectively for a few years hence?  :)

There are two questions here.  First, JAVA 3D is not supported by Sun
on Solaris x86, and it doesn't appear that they will support it in the
future (I think that this is a bad move by Sun, BTW).

As far as how much memory you purchase, our experience is that you can
NEVER have too much memory.  Systems that we bought with less than 1 GB
of RAM are slowly, but surely, being upgraded to 1 GB.  JAVA 3D is an
accomplished consumer of memory, so I would recommend that you "think
big".

If you decide to stick with SPARC, and if you are really going to start
running JAVA 3D applications (we hope so), then you should also think
about getting the machine(s) with at least the Sun Creator 3D graphics
cards as they provide OpenGL in silicon.

>thanks for any insights you might provide,

I hope that this helped...

>(PS, thanks for your part in the excellent workshop!)

I will pass along the compliment to Mike Schmidt and Sandy Whitesel,
our system administrators.  They both did an excellent job!

>--------------------------
>Mike Voss                                
>Department of Meteorology              
>San Jose State University                        
>One Washington Square                             
>San Jose, CA 95192-0104   
>             
>408.924.5204 voice
>408.924.5191 fax   

Tom Yoksas