computerization proposal

Bill Stevens (wstevens@siu.edu)
Tue, 17 Sep 1996 13:59:33 +0000

We are in the process of redoing an NSF-ILI proposal for bringing the
computer end of our NMR Facility into the modern age. The idea is for
students to be able to have a progressive NMR experience from the 24-station
PowerMac lab upstairs. This means NMR data manipulation in the sophomore
year progressing to instrument operation in the more advanced courses.

When I wrote the proposal last year, I asked for a SPARC 5 for each
instrument (I have VXR-300wb and VXR-500) and a dual-processor SPARC 20 to
serve as our "front end" to the Campus Area Network. The reviewers liked my
hardware selection then. Is it still the best choice? I know the UltraSPARCs
have been out about a year, but their graphics capabilities seem irrelevant
to what I need to do.

Also, how would you apportion the workload of the three SPARC's? Of course,
the SPARC 5's will be running VNMRX, but should the 20 also? Or should the
20 handle X-sessions only.

Almost finally, would you spend $2000 (my price for 3 cards) for the 100
Mb/s ethernet instead of the normal 10 Mb/s?

Finally, would you put a data archiving device (I like the idea of zip or
jazz drives on the SCSI bus) on each SPARC or just one?

I will post a summary if the replies come to me, but this might be a topic
the whole list would enjoy seeing discussed. Warning: my mail server has
been having lots of trouble. If you get bounces, please try again.

Bill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William C. Stevens, Ph.D. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Director Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4405
wstevens@siu.edu
http://www.siu.edu/departments/shops/bill.html
wstevens@intrnet.net voice: 618-453-6498 fax: -6408
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