PRENDER@mps.ohio-state.edu (Shawn Prendergast) (06/05/91)
Path: ohstpy!prender From: prender@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: SUN Laboratory Opinions Message-ID: <10213.28457762@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu> Date: 30 May 91 22:06:26 EDT News-Moderator: Approval required for posting to comp.sys.sun Lines: 22 Hi. Our research group needs to do real-time (or as close as possible) display (grayscale-ish images) and 2D FFTs of 100+ x 100+ arrays of numbers, along with standard 2- or 3D rotations of the generated images (basically all just very fast (compared to DOS on 386s) numbercrunching and graphics), and I've drawn the short straw on 'finding a suitable system' for the job. So far, OS/2 2.0 (32 bit), SUN (and similar) workstations, and the NeXT Machine have all come up for consideration. I have myriad DOS (and related area) experience, but nothing of consequence on the others, and so I'm looking for some practical opinions of people actually USING SUNs (or actually, ANY of the above systems) in a laboratory enviroment. is VERY tempting to us, but I have NO experience AT ALL with even SEEING a SUN run (I am a mainframe UnixBaby, though), and so hope to get some real nitty-gritty on the subject. Anything provided would be greatly appreciated. As usual, EMAIL is sure to be read but postings to this group should be noticed as well :-) ... Thanks. S Prendergast OSU Physics prender@ohstpy.mps.ohio.state.edu prender@ohstpy.BITNET
jc@raven.bu.edu (James Cameron) (06/28/91)
>>>>> On 31 May 91 02:06:26 GMT, prender@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu said: |> Hi. Our research group needs to do real-time (or as close as possible) |> display |> (grayscale-ish images) and 2D FFTs of 100+ x 100+ arrays of numbers, along |> with |> standard 2- or 3D rotations of the generated images (basically all just very |> fast (compared to DOS on 386s) numbercrunching and graphics), and I've drawn |> the short straw on 'finding a suitable system' for the job. So far, OS/2 |> 2.0 |> (32 bit), SUN (and similar) workstations, and the NeXT Machine have all come |> up for consideration. I have myriad DOS (and related area) experience, but |> nothing of consequence on the others, and so I'm looking for some practical |> opinions of people actually USING SUNs (or actually, ANY of the above |> systems) |> in a laboratory enviroment. |> is VERY tempting to us, but I have NO experience AT ALL with even SEEING a |> SUN run (I am a mainframe UnixBaby, though), and so hope to get some real |> nitty-gritty on the subject. Anything provided would be greatly |> appreciated. |> As usual, EMAIL is sure to be read but postings to this group should be |> noticed |> as well :-) ... |> Thanks. |> S Prendergast I administer a lab dealing with signal processing and speach recognition. We work with HUGE databases of data and run large jobs dealing with these databases. Thus number crunching is a big part of the usage of our computers. Now, this is our set-up: 4 SparcStation 2's one with 48 MB and the others with 32MB. Sun Slc (small - IMHO opinion, useless.. (not quite useless, but...)) They all run off of a Sun 4/380 server. We have about 35 users. Now, you might want to take a look at SGI workstations as well. They are *the* number crunching personal workstation. I have not worked with them all that much...Now, they do NOT yet run X which is a BIG strike against them. My suggestion to you: get a Sun server and some Sparc2's with color monitors. If the data needs to be shared between everyone this is probably a good choice. Now, I also administer a smaller lab of about 6 people. This lab has just started. There are two Sparc2's. The server is one of the Sparcs. This is ok, but is simply not enough. Hope this helps!! jc -- -- James Cameron (jc@raven.bu.edu) Signal Processing and Interpretation Lab. Boston, Mass (617) 353-2879