[AG-TECH] All-Windows AG nodes?

[Osland, CD (Chris)]

Don't know about multi-machine all Windows, but single-machine
all Windows works fine.  Ours are:

	twin 2.8 GHz Xeon on Supermicro motherboard (I think)
	1 Gb memory
	Winnov Videum 4400 VO video capture (4 streams, one card)
	Matrox Parhelia 256 Mb display card (we only needed 2 main
		displays)
	onboard 100 Mbit ethernet

Spot the non-information about sound.  Here's the story.

I got M-Audio cards (stereo, balanced I/O) cards but when we
enabled them, they played back for about half a second and
then produced a lovely blue screen.  Turns out their cards
don't work with Xeon processors - the memory access mechanism
is subtly different from Pentiums, and the M-Audio cards work
with Pentiums and Athlons, but not Xeons.

In a panic (days to go before VERY high profile demo - UK
Minister for Science!) I found that the onboard AC97 audio
chipset actually was full duplex, so added a balanced-unbalanced
interface (we use Sonifex, but any will do) and a couple of
stereo mini-jack to twin phono leads and we were away.

I have now found that E-Mu 1212m cards do support Xeons
(including twin Xeons) and so, as they are cheaper than the
bal-unbal interface and save 1U rack space, will try those in my
next nodes.

On the display front, we are about to try the Matrox QID which
has, at long last, surfaced - 4 outputs from a single PCI-X or
AGP slot.

Hope that helps

Chris

____________________________________________________________________
Chris Osland                                               Office tel: +44
(0) 1235 446565
Digital Media and Access Grid                          Medialab tel: +44 (0)
1235 446459
BIT Department                                     Access Grid room tel: +44
(0) 1235 445666
e-mail:   C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk                                       Fax: +44
(0) 1235 445597
CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Bldg. R18)
Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]On
> Behalf Of David E. Bernholdt [bek] 574-3147
> Sent: 15 June 2004 18:19
> To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Cc: bernholdtde at ornl.gov
> Subject: [AG-TECH] All-Windows AG nodes?
> 
> 
> Since Windows PIGs work okay, I assume a multi-machine all-Windows AG
> node configuration (as opposed to Windows for display and Linux for
> capture) works okay, but can anyone confirm that they're actually
> using such a setup?  Are there any problems with multiple Hauppague
> video capture cards under Windows?  Would anyone have reservations
> about going with such a setup?
> 
> Thanks
> --
> David E. Bernholdt                   |   Email: bernholdtde at ornl.gov 
> Oak Ridge National Laboratory        |   Phone: +1 (865) 574 3147    
> http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/   |   Fax:   +1 (865) 576 5491
>