[AG-TECH] Computational requirements for the future

[Jason Bell]

G'day All

I'm in the process of configuring up some equipment for a couple of new
room nodes.

The problem I face is deciding on what type of machine I will need to
power some of the new "Features" that we may be confronted with over the
next couple of years.  I guess what I am really interested in knowing is
the computational requirements of some of the "newer" video codec's.

For example, has any done testing on the following???

*	H264 and/or Mpeg 4
*	DV
*	HDTV
*	Others that may be used in the future

What sort of CPU processing power have you tested with, have you found
that the encoding it the computational intensive part, or is the
decoding pretty computational intensive as well???

Knowing this will determine the types of machines required for video
capture and video display side of things for an Access Grid.

The reason for this question is that a single CPU, Dual Core computer
seem to currently have the best bang for buck value.  I would be
interested to know if you personally think that (for example) a dual
core 2.8Ghz workstation would be capable enough to handle many of the
above situations.

I guess another thing to consider, is that if the encoding side of
things is the most computational intensive part, then would using 2
machines for capture be better than say using a dual CPU machine (Around
the same price).

I would love to hear people's thoughts, comments and various tests you
have performed.

Thanks for your time,
Jason.

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Jason Bell, B.I.T.
B. Info. Tech. (Honours) Student

Network Engineer
Information Technology Division
Central Queensland University

High Performance Computing Support Officer
Central Queensland University

Research Assistant to the Nonlinear
Intelligent Systems Research Group 
Faculty of Informatics & Communication
Central Queensland University

E-mail : j.bell at cqu.edu.au
Phone : 07 4930 9229

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Patience is a virtue.

But if I wanted Patience,
I would have become a Doctor.

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