I want to have a linux box (for EDA) at home

[omara007]

Hi folks ..

I'm thinking of having a server at home .. on which I can run my huge simulations, synthesis and backend stuff .. Any suggestions regarding the configuration ?

I was thinking of Centos or RHEL server version as an OS ..
AMD : Athlon or opteron ..
160+ GHDD
4 -> 8 GRAM ..

I will be using Synopsys/Cadence tools ..


Any suggestion on the configuration/OS and what best matches Synopsys/Cadence flows ?

 

[meitolake]

You should go to Cadence and Synopsys website, refer to Supported Platform Matrix for Cadence Applications and Supported Compute Platforms Guide.

 

[tsinghua]

RHEL AS4 is a good choice, which is supported by both Cadence and Synopsys tools.

 

[omara007]

RHEL AS4 is a good choice, which is supported by both Cadence and Synopsys tools.

What is AS4 ? .. I know RHEL3, 4 .. but what's AS4 ?

 

[III]

If U have a 64bit ps go with the 64bit version of open SUSE or SLED, else if U need stability use Debian
RHEL is comercial after 30 days U have to bue it, SLED and SLES are completely free U only have to pay if U want access to the priority update servers,
8)

 

[omara007]

If U have a 64bit ps go with the 64bit version of open SUSE or SLED, else if U need stability use Debian
RHEL is comercial after 30 days U have to bue it, SLED and SLES are completely free U only have to pay if U want access to the priority update servers,
8)

I heard that Optron supports both 32bit and 64bit at the same time .. is that correct ?
For the RHEL .. CentOS is typically RHEL .. and it's completely free .. even the updates are free ..

 

[tsinghua]

RHEL 4 has different variants for different application.
AS means advanced server. It is the most powerful variant of RHEL 4.

 

[III]

AMD 64 has support for sse2 while 32 bit athlon does not ,
And U can always run a 32bit OS on a 64 bit pc, but it's like having a Ferrari and not taking it out of the garage.
If U have the bandwidth get Debian 4 it comes on 3 or 4 DVD's and it's one of the most stable Linux distro's around, If U wan't an enterprise grade Linux go with (S)use(L)inux(E)nterprise(D)esktop or CentOS

 

[omara007]

AMD 64 has support for sse2 while 32 bit athlon does not ,
And U can always run a 32bit OS on a 64 bit pc, but it's like having a Ferrari and not taking it out of the garage.
If U have the bandwidth get Debian 4 it comes on 3 or 4 DVD's and it's one of the most stable Linux distro's around, If U wan't an enterprise grade Linux go with (S)use(L)inux(E)nterprise(D)esktop or CentOS

CentOS is my favorite ..
did you mean Optron when u said AMD 64 ??

 

[III]

Yes as Opteron was AMD first 64bit processor
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opteron

The Opteron is AMD's x86 server processor line, and was the first processor to implement the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64).

and it does support natively both 64 and 32 bit applications

Opteron combines two important capabilities in a single processor die:

1. native execution of legacy x86 32-bit applications without speed penalties
2. native execution of x86-64 64-bit applications (linear-addressing beyond 4 GiB RAM)

The first capability is notable because at the time of Opteron's introduction, the only other 64-bit processor architecture marketed with 32-bit x86 compatibility (Intel's Itanium) ran x86 legacy-applications only with significant speed degradation. The second capability, by itself, is less noteworthy, as all major RISC players (Sun SPARC, DEC Alpha, HP PA-RISC, IBM POWER, SGI MIPS, etc.) have had 64-bit implementations for many years. In combining these two capabilities, however, the Opteron has earned recognition for its ability to run the vast installed base of x86 applications economically, while simultaneously offering an upgrade-path to 64-bit computing.

 

[edacw1]

Opteron and RHEL WS/AS 3 or 4 are prefered!

 

[lcbrevard]

SHORT ANSWER:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 system with 2GB-4GB of RAM, and 400 GB to 500 GB disk.

Run CentOS 4 x86_64 (aka AMD64) 64-bit OS
https://www.centos.org

MUCH LONGER ANSWER:
I have worked at Synopsys for most of the last six years and had the "Platform Marketing" position for about six months - mediating between the development groups (who only would like to support ONE platform if possible), the customers (who want every possible combination) and the OS vendors (who always claim the customers absolutely must have some particular combination).

See this site for the officially supported compute platforms for any given release opportunity period:
https://www.synopsys.com/products/sw_platform.html

Having said that, I can also tell you from personal experience that CentOS makes a perfectly viable alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

I personally recommand a dual-core x86_64 system, AMD 64 or Intel EM64T, with the x86_64 64-bit version of CentOS - currently I'd recommend CentOS 4 == RHEL v4

Your most bang-for-the-buck right this minute is probably an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor based system, but note that what is the best deal changes almost monthly.

Get at least 2GB of RAM, 4GB recommended, and a fast several hundred GB disk - say 400 GB to 500 GB.

Warning, in the past cheaper motherboards have not supported Serial ATA (SATA) very well but a newer mainstream motherboard should be fine.

Back in 2005 I built an Athlon 64 2800+ single core, 2 GB RAM, 300 GB Parallel ATA (because the SATA support is flaky on this board), on a Gigabyte GA-K8U. This is an obsolete socket 754 system and I think the slowest AMD64 they ever sold but it runs the Synopsys MAP-in* program software just fine.

This system is running CentOS 4.5 (RHEL v4 update 5) x86_64 with 2.6.9-55 kernel.

*MAP-in provides access to the Milkyway digital design database to other EDA vendors for free. See **broken link removed** for more information.

LCBrevard
San Jose, CA
**broken link removed**