ABAQUS on XP64bit/Vista 64bit Editions 5

[xerf]

We are in process of buying a new workstation mainly for running ABAQUS. We intend to have 8Gb Ram so we need a 64bit OS.

I have no experience related to ABAQUS running on 64bit machines. I checked the ABAQUS web-page and it seems Windows 64bit (both XP and Vista) are supported.

http://www.simulia.com/support/v67/v67_sysRqmts.html#platTbl

Any recommendation from people having experience with running ABAQUS on a 64-bit workstation/OS will be greatly appreciated.

 

[gurmeet2003]

xref,

I am running ABAQUS on a 64 bit IBM (Dual Opteron) workstation with 8GB memory. I am using SUSE Linux 9.3 operating system. Runs beautifully no problems in las 2 years.


Gurmeet

 

[xerf]

Thanks. I wonder if somebody has some experience with ABAQUS on Windows 64bit.

 

[kize]

hi xerf, i have experience of running abaqus on Windows-64. it work very well.

 

[xerf]

kize,

Thanks a lot. Is it Windows 64 bit - XP or Vista?

Could you tell what version of ABAQUS have you been running on Windows-64bit?

Best.

 

[MrMyers]

I'd suggest SUSE Linux - fairly easy to set up and operate remotely. Like gurmeet2003, we have been running SUSE for the past few years on similar machine and have been quite impressed.

 

[Yoman228]

From my experence, the linux 32 bit manchine always run faster then the window 32 bit manchine for analysis requires small time increment.
Not sure if that the case in 64 bit manchine thou.

 

[rstupplebeen]

Up until 3 months ago I was using the latest version of Abaqus on both Suse 10.0 and Windows-XP both 64bit. I had no problems. So far I have heard nothing good about Windows-Vista though. It seems like it is floundering much like Windows-ME. Hope this helps.
Rob Stupplebeen

 

[johnhors]

A major stumbling block with Windows/Vista is the lack of direct support for OpenGL graphics, instead graphical interfaces that use OpenGL such as Abaqus/CAE and just about every other FE and CAD system have to be run via an emulator, and will thus appear to run much slower than on XP, Win2K...

It seems that yet again Microsoft demonstrates it's arrogance by favouring it's own graphics system and penalising users (=the whole FE and CAD communities) of the dominant free open system.

 

[xerf]

johnhors,

ABAQUS (Dassault) does not mention anything about using an emulator for CAE. Could you detail on that ?

I do not like Vista either, for example I found it absurd for an OS to require so much RAM memory. Anyway, the problem is XP is a 6 year old OS, and probably MS will tend to support it less.

 

[johnhors]

xerf,

It's not CAE that uses an emulator, it's the actual operating system itself (i.e. Vista) that has to run an emulator for OpenGL based graphics programs. This is an issue that caused quite a stir amongst the CAD vendors when it first became known, most of which are hurriedly re-writing their graphic interfaces to cope with Vista. I'm not saying that Vista won't run Abaqus/CAE, it will, but install XP 64 on the same machine and you are almost guaranteed better performance.

 

[bassmanjax]

Some good info here from the group behind OpenGL

http://www.opengl.org/pipeline/article/vol003_9/

Provided that the likes of NVIDIA and ATI provide good ICD's in their driver software, the performance should be comparable to XP. If the vendors don't provide an ICD, then the application will revert to software OpenGL - this is no different in XP.

Vista uses an extra emulation layer between the GPU and the application that disn't exist in XP - the Desktop Window Manager (DWM).

Regards



Martin Stokes CEng MIMechE

 

[johnhors]

see also

http://www.mcadonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=261&Itemid=73

 

[xerf]

Interesting articles. Thanks!