dan@doctor.chem.yale.edu (Dan Severance) (12/02/90)
Hi,
We've had excellent luck using SGI boxes for performing Monte Carlo
and Molecular Dynamics simulations in computational chemistry. They give
use the most "bang for the buck".
Unfortunately, our needs are for a LOT of crunch power and minimal
graphics. The crunch power we get nicely from SGI servers (4D-35s soon
I hope), and we have 2 4D-25Gs which are going to be upgraded to 4D-35Gs.
These are nice, but we instead of servers, we would prefer something like
a desktop machine with minimal 3D or just 2D graphics. All we need is a
windowing system that we could use for program developement without having
to pay the extra $$$ for the graphics engine, while still having the CPU
power of the servers.
In short, it would be great if SGI came out with a sparcstation-like
product, color, 8bp 2D graphics, but with the crunch-power of their 4D-25
or 4D-35 machines. (our code runs on a 4D-25 2-2.5 times as fast than a
SparcStation 1 and it likes larger cache a lot which the 4D-35 will have).
If SGI had a machine like that, we wouldn't buy servers, we'd buy it
instead so we'd have a workstation environment consistent with the 3D
machines, but it would be plenty for editing, 2D graphics, etc...
Of course, then they would be going head to head with SUN because
little 2D machines is their niche, but for us SGI would win hands down...
Any comments SGI??
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Dan Severance Laboratory of Computational Chemistry
dan@rani.chem.yale.edu Yale University Chem. Dept.