| Re: Best platform for IDL 6.2? [message #46615 is a reply to message #46364] |
Fri, 02 December 2005 05:44   |
Wolf Schweitzer
Messages: 21
Registered: October 2001
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Junior Member |
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I have experience running IDL under Mac OS X on Dual G5 Powermac, under
OS X on various G4-configs (Powerbook, Powermacs), we currently run IDL
also under AIX on an IBM Intellistation 275, and I'm at this moment
waiting for a 2xproc-AMD-Opteron-254 machine (I ordered a Fujitsu
Siemens Celsius v830 to replace my old G4 Powermac at home) that I'll
set up with Linux and IDL.
I like Mac OS X for it's desktop productivity and seamlessness, and I
like it as X-Windows-Client - but Mac OS X does not have full 64-bit
capability (so you can't get IDL to run more than 2GB-processes) and
even a Dual-Processor G5 Powermac is considerably slower than, say, an
IBM Notebook or a cheap Acer Veriton desktop computer (which we tried in
evaluating our options). In terms of it's performance, even fast Macs
really are too slow for the price they cost. It terms of combined
desktop software-productivity and hardware, Mac OS X is luxuriously nice.
Our IBM workstation contains PowerPC-processors (two dualcore
Power4-processors), so that's basically the same as the G5-processors
(also produced by IBM). While to no surprise the IDL stuff doesn't
really run much faster on the IBM workstation than on the G5 (the little
Apple brothers of the same processor), the 64-bit capability with the 12
GB RAM really, really, really make a big difference (volume data ranging
between 400MB-9GB) - so it is possible to work with a lot more data.
Currently, I prefer to work on IDL on the IBM workstation, and simply
FTP any data on/from it from the Mac.
My colleague (who shares the workstation with me; we both probably use
it ~ 20-30% of the time at the moment) and I both use X-windows to
access this workstation, and it's a really useful setup. However,
installing other packages (The Gimp, ..) under Unix may require a lot
more patience than installing software on an Apple Macintosh computer,
depending on the type of software (even though some is really simple rpm
-i .. stuff not worth worrying about).
Currently I would recommend getting any machine that runs AMD
64-bit-processors under Linux (or if you like Windows...) and an IDL
license for that type of machine (have you checked
http://www.monarchcomputer.com - that is where I would shop if I was in
the USA). If your "desktop productivity does require" (i.e. "your
finances allow") an additional Mac OS X, you could maybe get the slowest
Mac that still does what you need it to do - like a smaller G4 Powerbok,
a G4 iBook, or maybe an iMac G5 as they look trendy; currently I'd wait
until January to see what's up with Apple. I would not get Sun (like
Apple, too expensive for the performance), or SGI (..), and I'd
definitely stay away from Windows unless you are absolutely sure you
need Windows for other reasons. I'm sure Apple has the potential to
release some wonderfully fast machines running a full 64-bit-OS and IDL
at a prime speed in, maybe, mid 2007 - it's only that they're not there yet.
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