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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.hardware:7944 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:1643 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:442 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!gatech!news.sprintlink.net!cs.utexas.edu!usc!news.cerf.net!nntp-server.caltech.edu!nntp-server.caltech.edu!ernst From: ernst@kuk.klab.caltech.edu (Ernst Niebur) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Is this a good configuration for a serious image processing system? Date: 01 Jun 1995 19:27:57 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology Lines: 55 Distribution: world Message-ID: <ERNST.95Jun1122757@kuk.klab.caltech.edu> Reply-To: ernst@klab.caltech.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: kuk.klab.caltech.edu Hi everyone, we are in the process of putting together a somewhat serious image processing system. We need to grab moving images (we have already a video camera) and then do processing on them. At present, we use Sun workstations which do the processing fine, but the video capture sucks big time (we need real-time capturing, at least for quarter-size images, which probably requires on-board compression). Since I have Linux running on my notebook for some time already and since I am extremely happy with it, we will go with either Linux or with Free/netBSD. The following is a configuration we put together and we would purchase very soon if no problems show up. Does anybody see any problems with it? One of the important constraints is that we need to transfer data from the video capture board to disk real fast, ie at frame rate. Thanks for your input! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - Super-Micro Pentium PCI Triton 256k cache motherboard - ref. P55CWA - CPU Intel P120 w/cooler - 64 Mb RAM, as 70ns 72pin 16Mb or 32Mb (not always available) SIMMs - OEM AMD LANCE PCI 10baseT ethernet board - OEM S3 968 video board with max VRAM - 3-button serial mouse - 17 " Microscan 5EP-MPR2+EPA/.28 - disk: either a 1275Mb Conner 10ms EIDE (CFS1275A) with the EIDE controller on the triton motherboard, or a fast wide SCSI-II. What would be the fastest possible ? Is the NCR SCSI PCI 53c8xx (which xx?) a good choice for a really fast controller ? What popular SCSI-II drives are really fast ? Would this be ok for a combination of Linux/XFree86/NetBSD/FreeBSD ? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, btw, the careful reader will have noticed that we don't include a frame grabber (with which our switch to Linux/xBSD started in the first place). The reason is that we haven't yet found one which is powerful enough and which has a driver for Linux/xBSD. There is a Linux driver for the old Videoblaster but that card is -- well, just old. Haven't yet found a better one for which a driver exists. In the worst case, we will write one ourselves. Thanks again! --Ernst -- Ernst Niebur Phone (818)395 2880 Computation and Neural Systems Fax (818)796 8876 Caltech 139-74 ernst@caltech.edu Pasadena, CA 91125, USA