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US Army Needs Linux Workstation Advice
Shawn wrote in asking for suggestions on high-end Linux Workstation configurations for the US Army. Aparently, they are looking at replacing some SGIs with cheaper PCs, and this being Slashdot, I'm sure some of you might be able to make some improvements to their suggested configuration. I can't tell you how glad I am to see the US Army giving Linux a chance. The US Navy could probably learn a thing or two from this. Click below for the full text.
Shawn asks: "The US Army is looking for advice on purchasing several high-end Linux workstations. These systems will be used in a post-flight processing environment. We routinely process raw data measurements in excess of 1 million samples/second. This processing can utilize several GB of disk space and up to and exceeding 1GB of RAM. We are currently using SGI Octane systems but need to switch to the lower cost PC environment. This will allow less costly while still providing excellent performance. Let us know any advice you may have or insights we may not have thought of.
Here are the specifications we are currently considering:
Motherboard
- Intel® 840 chipset
- RIMM slots for at least 1GB dual-channel Rambus® memory
- Integrated dual ATA-66 EIDE controllers
- Ports: USB (2), serial (2), Parallel, PS/2
- Integrated Ultra 160/M SCSI and Ultra/Wide SCSI Controllers
- NO INTEGRATED VIDEO
- Intel® Pentium® III 733Mhz (slot 1)
- .18-micron Coppermine architecture
- 256K cache
- 133MHz FSB
- 1GB Rambus® memory
- Full tower
- 300W or greater power supply
- 4 or more 5.25" exposed drive bays
- 1 or more 3.5" exposed drive bay(s)
- Two or more small fans blowing air directly across the drive bays
- 9GB Ultra 160/M SCSI (7200 rpm) hard drive (internal)
- 36GB (or larger) Ultra 160/M SCSI (10000 rpm) hard drive (internal)
- LS-120 internal superfloppy (IDE)
- 5X (or faster) DVD drive (internal - IDE or SCSI)
- Diamond Viper V770 Ultra 32 (AGP 2X/4X)
- Viewsonic P815 21" monitor
- 3Com 3C905B-TX ethernet card (PCI)
- SoundBlaster PCI128 (PCI)
- Powered speakers with wall adapter
- Soft-touch keyboard (no keyclick)
- Microsoft Intellimouse
- Red Hat Linux 6.x
- 3 year parts and labor
Thanks,
US Army Test Facility."
If it is specialized, I would recommend a simple window manager such as BlackBox or IceWM. There is no need to burden your system with unnecessary tools and applications. If, on the other hand, it is going to be a user friendly system, I'd have to recommend using KDE or GNOME, giving preference to your personal aesthetics. The added complexity of GNOME or KDE should be justified.
In terms of hardware, I must point out that USB support will not be available until kernel 2.4, IIRC, but that will be arriving soon. Also included will be firewire support, again IIRC, which should encourage you to investigate using that as a possible alternative to SCSI. Again, it is application dependent, and also subject to some personal preference.
In terms of video, the Diamond Viper is a bit of overkill if you'll be using BlackBox or IceWM, and you could save yourself a bit of money by getting something a bit less hefty, and possibly including TV support, such as the ATI Rage128. Since the TNT2 chipset is being backed by NVidia under Linux, it is a decent choice, IMHO.
With respect to the processor of choice, I see no real reason not to get an AMD instead of an Intel if the price is right and the speed is sensible. Alternatively, with Linux, you can go completely Alpha, or Sparc (although I would avoid Sparc, but that's a personal aesthetic thing), and not have to really worry about interoperability with other platforms given the nature of Linux.
Well, I hope that helps.
The first three companies are pure Linux. The fourth is getting good advice on Linux systems from people in the community.
You absolutely want as little variation on your hardware as possible with these machines. This will up the price of each machine. However, it will also make them easier to maintain, repair, upgrade and find drivers for. The additional expense pays off in the long run, if you are going to deploy thousands of these things. Make this a condition of your contract.
Personally, I say go with ASL, if only because they're nice guys.
NB- I don't work for any of these companies, even (as far as I know) indirectly.
Finding God in a Dog
Sir. We at the NSA are not aware that we have any
such sense of humor.
Point by point, dissection of the specs.
1. i840: The best choice of chipset. No complaints.
2. dual ATA-66: Why, beyond the spectre of universal upgradability, would one want integrated ATA-66 when planning to use the 160/M SCSI interface? Perhaps a less expensive board w/o the ATA-66 controller would be a better choice.
3. 2x USB, serial, parallel: No complaints.
4. Integrated Ultra 160/M and U/W SCSI: Good choice if running the two HD 'standalone'. Perhaps a RAID controller on top of it to handle the data spool instead of the single 36 G drive. The controller and smaller SCSI volumes will probably be more cost-effective in the long run also.
5. 733 PIII: Intel may not be terribly committed to releasing faster chips in the slot 1 variety, now that they're also trying the FCs and PPGAs. If you're counting on a brain transplant down the road, perhaps a quad board with two empty slots would serve you.
6. (storage): A single 9G volume for the root fs and a 36+G volume for data is a fair start, but as mentioned earlier, RAID for the data spool may be more cost-effective in the long run. The DVD drive, well, I'll leave it alone.
7. Viper V770: Go with a Matrox, and a G200 at least. Better Linux support and a better card for the money.
8. 3c905: Go DEC Tulip-based instead. It performs better under Linux, and the driver is excellent.
9. SB PCI128: Try a standard SB16 instead. You'll never notice the difference.
10. Keyboard: Please, if there is to be someone typing at it night and day, substitute a more expensive ergo unit.
Remember folks, they'll be spending OUR tax dollars on this, let's give them the best bang for the buck!
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This seems more like a wishlist for a home PC than a number-cruncher for data analysis. Couple of points to keep in mind when specc'ing hardware for a professional installation (corporate, organizational, or even millitary).
1) Anything you buy today will be hopelessly obsolete in 18 months: that's the PC life-span. Live with it.
2) You will -not- have the time to upgrade these machines. It seems cheaper on paper to swap out video, drives, and motherboards to and from a generic PC. It's not. Factor in: downtime, reconfiguration, getting the new stuff to work, filling out the paperwork for upgrade components, etc, etc, etc. Forklift upgrades are the -only- practical way to run a professional shop. Drive space and RAM should be the only things you touch.
This comes from long personal experience. You can afford the time and effort to screw around with a pieces-parts home machine. It's a whole other story when you are on the company (gov't.) dime.
3) Established, standard components all the way. The bleeding edge is for chumps and loosers and guys with nothing better to do than hack device drivers.
This -includes- OS! Your system vendor should install and support the version of Linux you want to run. No ands ifs or buts.
Bearing these three principles in mind, I would reccomend buying the fastest possible systems you can afford, and go with reliable, mid-range components in standard configurations. Standardization is -key-: bits'n'pieces is no way to run a high-end shop. To achieve this end, talk to VA Research about their Xeons, Penguin Computing about their Athalons, and Microway about their Alphas. Go with their reccomendations, and avoid customizing their standard configurations.
I highly reccomend Alpha hardware for speed, reliability, and compatibility. (Second only to x86) The Alpha/Linux combo has been proven in high-end applications like cinema special effects and weapons engineering supercomputers. (What do you -think- those Beowolfs are used for? Quake servers?)
The faster the system, the longer you have until it obsoletes. Another point in favor of the Alpha. The more vanilla the component, the easier it is to replace in case of failure. Standardize, standardize, standardize!
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