SGI onyx/octane2 questions...

J

jack9800XT

Weaksauce
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Jun 7, 2004
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I am not 100% positive if this is the right place for this post, but here I go,

ok, a bit of a story first, last semester in university I was recruited by a professor for her research program. She is a member of both the faculty of chemistry as well as physics and her research(that I would take part in) is mostly molecular modeling and simulations and I will be working with an SGI ONYX 3400 and SGI OCTANE2 workstations.

The software I will be using will be stuff like Gaussian, HyperChem, NAMD molecular dynamics, NMRPipe, and X-window.

The program is government funded and I have already been set up for work in sept and I can not really be fired or not take the job at this point.

The problem is that I have no idea what any of this is, how any of it is used, or what this software is about. (SGI ONYX 3400 is a freaking supercomputer or so google tells me)

Any imput on what kind of software these systems run, learning curve, any helpful hints at all would be greatly appreciated.
 
I wouldn't touch it with a 60' pole.

The Octanes are right out. Only the the Onyx may have a little power depending on its age and config. It likely has a lot of memory but cpu wise it is likely no stronger than a 300$ PC and with the onyx you are forced to program multithreaded to use all the cpus. A single cpu in it is no where near a PC today.
If it is brand new and top of the line it's pretty fast but still you have to go threaded otherwise it loses its bite. Check its age.
Considering support difficulty and software availability I would rig a modern PC and develop the system on that. You would have the results on that long before they get a running solution on an SGI.

SGIs look really impressive but they are full of hot air. Expensive hot air.

If you can in any way make the choice go with a pc based solution.
 
Irix a Unix varient would be the OS
and there really is no forum here that will be much help, though there are likely a few members here and there

Id recommend you look for user groups, learning curve will be steep without a Unix\Linux background
since there isnt a specific question its a little tough
that used to be serious computer, hardware architecture is quite different


Might want to drop a thread over at CGTalk as well
I'll see what I can dig up this afternoon, after I get back from the DogPark ;)

Im transfering you to Operating Systems, where the likelyhood of a Unix Gawd is greater

SGI once owned both animation and scientific modeling
they are still heavilly employed with legacy software in the scientific community but are on their way out,
(especially underfunded college departments)
but just cant compete with Linux clusters on realatively cheap computers
your likely to be on that beast because of the software the department has
 
If you're not responsible for admin work, Irix is close enough to every other unix out there that, if you have any unix experience, you should be fine.


Don't have a clue about any of the apps, tho. Sounds like fairly domain specific stuff; somebody there's going to show you how to use it, or at least give you a manual.
 
Buy a used SGI on eBay, they go for 200-600 depending on model and setup. Then get the programs from the project in advance and play around with them.

- Qualm
 
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