desired system

[gilfoyle <ggilfoyl@richmond.edu>]

Dear VA Linux Systems Representative:

   I am a physicist at the University of Richmond and we are in
the process of developing a 'supercomputing' cluster to support
our research in nuclear and particle physics. I was wondering
if you could provide us with a quote for such a system and 
answer a few questions about creating such a computer cluster.
The system we envision would consist of the following items.

1. 20, dual-Pentium, rack-mountable, linux workstations. Your 
model 1220 seems like an appropriate choice. We would require
512 MByte of RAM in each machine plus about 36 GByte of disk
space.

2. 2-3 TByte of disk space. Your model 4450 database server
looks like the type of device we want. We want it to also be
rack-mountable.

3. 24-port router. We already have a smaller, 12-node cluster
with a 24-port router, but would presumably require a second 
one. We would like to put all the machines (old and new) on 
the same subnet for security reasons. Is it possible to 
daisy-chain routers together or do we need to get a new,
larger one to handle all 32 nodes?

4. Two 21-inch monitors and a switch so that we can quickly
and easily view the output from any single node.

5. Backup power supplies.

6. Racks to hold it all.

Any help you can provide us would be greatly appreciated. My
contact information is below.

Thanks-in-advance,

Jerry Gilfoyle

-- 
Dr. Gerard P. Gilfoyle
Physics Department                e-mail: ggilfoyl@richmond.edu
University of Richmond, VA 23173  phone:  804-289-8255
USA                               fax:    804-289-8482