[AG-TECH] AG tools on SPARC/SOlaris platforms?

[S.Booth]

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 rodgers at nlm.nih.gov wrote:

> I am new to the AccessGrid community, though an old hand using vic/rat
> through experience doing MBONE multicast presentations from various Web
> and other conferences over the past 8 years, using SPARC/Solaris platforms;
> I have great enthusiasm and respect for the energy and talent behind the AG;
> nevertheless, it was a bit sad to find no one using Suns within the this
> community.  Is anyone else interested in seeing the AG tools ported to Suns?
> 

Well I'm sitting at a Sun desktop at the moment so I'm interested but its
difficult to justify too much effort in this direction.


> There seem to be several technical issues:
> 
> 1) The Python-based venue management software *ought* to be portable to
>    Suns -- what are the likely technical hurdles?
> 2) The principal video capture device used previously on Suns, the Osprey
>    1500, is no longer made (though the company says it would issue some
>    on special order if there were enough interest).  Newer Suns have
>    USB connections, and I've seen mention on the Web of cameras that
>    supposedly operate on Sun USB ports, but have no direct experience.
>    Has anyone had experience using USB-based video cameras on Suns,
>    and how difficult would it be to support such devices within vic?

I also came across a port of the bttv drivers for solaris
http://bt848x.sourceforge.net/
that broaden the range of possible capture cards though the VIC source may
need tweaking i've no direct experience.

> 3) Given that vic and rat were born on beige boxes, it ought to be
>    straightforward to build AG versions (with the AES encryption and any other
>    AG enhancements) on Suns -- are there hidden technical trip-ups lurking
>    here? 

I have used the UCL sparc versions to monitor AG sessions from my desk
The one issue I have seen is some Solaris sound capture setups seem to
impose a very long time delay. Its probably worth checking manually run
vic/rat works ok before pushing ahead with the python stuff.


> 
> What other technical issues would be encountered?

If you want a room based node ratehr than a PIG the choice of graphics
cards might also limit you a bit.


> I'd be very eager to share thoughts with anyone else who is interested
> in AG-enabling Suns, to see what is involved and who might be willing
> to share the effort.
> 

			Stephen
======================================================================
|epcc| Dr Stephen P Booth             Project Manager           |epcc|
|epcc| s.booth at epcc.ed.ac.uk          Phone 0131 650 5746       |epcc|
======================================================================