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How would you configure a Linux system for AFNI?

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Q29. How would you configure a Linux system for AFNI?
A good Intel/Linux system (but not really cheap) would be
  • 800 MHz+ MHz Pentium III/IV or Athlon (but not Xeon - doesn't provide much speedup).
  • As much RAM as you can cram in (256-1024 MB).
  • Dual 18 GB SCSI disk drives (or dual 36 gigs, or more!).
  • Some data backup system: DDS-3 tape, CD recorder, ....
  • 20-21'' monitor, configured to run at 1600x1200 (or an LCD panel!).
    • Even better are dual display systems, which I'm using and really enjoying.
In general, SCSI disks are preferred to IDE because of faster I/O, and much better performance when multiple streams of I/O are being carried out. If you are concerned about price, IDE works OK as long as only one major disk operation is happening at a time (e.g., you don't run two big programs at once). I personally do most of my development work on a IDE-based system. But I'm not really involved in big-time data analysis, so what do I know?

If you are not comfortable installing Linux yourself, there is a large number of vendors who will build a computer for you, install Linux (and Windows), and ship you the system. A list of companies that sell computers with Linux pre-installed can be found here -- one vendors I have used successfully in the past is ASL Workstations [this is not an endorsement, just a statement of fact].

AFNI itself is developed to be compatible with all the Unix systems to which I have regular access. This means (in order of importance) Intel-x86/Linux, SGI-MIPS/IRIX, Sun/Solaris, Mac OS X, and HP-PA/HP-UX. Compatibility with other systems is by luck, mostly. I have heard of people using AFNI on IBM/AIX, DEC, and OpenBSD. Not having one of these systems handy, I can't help if you run into trouble on one of them.

This FAQ applies to: Any version.

Created by Robert Cox
Last modified 2005-07-31 10:46
 

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