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ScanImage 4.

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x Workstation Specs

ScanImage 3.x

The following minimum recommendations/notes are provided, based on experiences in the developers' laboratories:

• At minimum dual core processors (Intel Core 2 Duo, at minimum) should be used. This ensures that ScanImage frame processing functions can operate uninterrupted.
• At least 800MHz DDR2 RAM should be used (at least 2GB)

The computer selected should have sufficient PCI and/or PCI Express slots to support the required DAQ hardware in addition to any user-specific requirements.

Suitable computers have been obtained to date from Superlogics. In addition, computer options from Dell are now being investigated.

Some example system configurations:

• SL-4U-H55HC-HA: iCore7 processor, Dual-OS (WinXP/32-bit & Win7/64-bit), 8GB RAM, 500 GB second drive for data
  New users would likely need only the Win7/64-bit OS installed

ScanImage 4.x is expected to run on machines meeting these minimum requirements:

• Multi-core processor (> 4, typ. 8 or higher)
  • SI 4.x uses 3 threads, which will typically execute on separate cores. Having > 4 cores allows additional applications to run in parallel with SI 4.x.
• 4 PCIe slots or more (1 x8, 3 x1) for Thor/SI4.x DAQ cards.
  • Note an additional (5'th) slot, typ. PCIe x16, is typically needed for a graphics card (for motherboards without internal graphics).
  • Users should account for any additional slots they may need for hardware used together with ScanImage 4.x.
• 8GB RAM or higher
• Integrated RAID controller, allowing for RAID 0 data drive pair
• Win 7/64-bit OS

All SI 4.x testing has been done with disk logging to a RAID 0 data drive pair, typically a pair of matched Western Digital 10K RPM Velociraptor drives.

ScanImage 3.8 Workstation Specs

ScanImage 3.8 can be run on a wide range of computers, including several 4U rack-mount computers from Superlogics. Here are the key guidelines:

• Typical new systems use the PCI-6110 digitizer for the primary board and a PCIe X Series board for the optional secondary board. For such a case, it is required to select a motherboard/enclosure supporting a full-length PCI board as well as having at least one PCIe slot - in addition to the slots needed for the video card, other applications/devices, etc.
• Win 7/64-bit is recommended OS; Win XP/32-bit is also supported
• Select a CPU with at minimum 2 cores. Any of the Intel Core processors (Core i3/i5/i7) meet this requirement. A CPU with 4 cores (most Core i5 and all Core i7 processors) is recommended if using ScanImage together with any other program simultaneously, e.g. for physiology/behavior/etc.
• Use of a second hard drive for data storage is not required, but does reduced the processing time used for writing to disk. This second hard drive can be a standard magnetic drive (a solid-state-drive for data streaming is not recommended).

Note the Superlogics SL-4U-MCX-C602Z9 (i.e. the ScanImage 4.x workstation) does NOT generally meet the ScanImage Recommended Computer Hardware requirements for ScanImage 3.8. It has 7PCIe slots, but zero PCI slots. At least one full-length PCI card slot is required to use standard ScanImage 3.8 DAQ boards (e.g. the PCI-6110 for the mirror control)

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