Computing Infrastructure

Project Team: Mujunen, Engelberg

Metsähovi observatory site is connected to the Internet using a 2 Mbit/s dedicated leased line to university computing center. A stand-alone NAT LANB/290 IP router routes TCP/IP network traffic between Metsähovi LAN and Internet WAN. Four 28.8k modems provide dial-in facilities for observatory personnel although the availability of free-of-charge Internet modem service providers has mostly rendered in-house modems obsolete.

A Tektronix Phaser 740 color printer was installed in addition to the existing HP LaserJet 5M black and white printers.

An increasing number of PC fans and power supplies failed and had to be replaced. Small CPU fans seem to be especially vulnerable to failures after only 2$-$3 years of use. A batch of new ATX power supply units was purchased to allow quick in-house swaps of failed PSUs.

Many of our Linux computers were upgraded from Debian/GNU/Linux (http://www.debian.org) version 2.1 to 2.2. The Debian ``dselect/dpkg'' mechanism offers continuous upgradability package-by-package without the need to reinstall the operating system from scratch. It seems to work surprisingly well, since we have had a couple of computers undergo an uninterrupted chain of upgrades (from 1.1 $\rightarrow$ 1.2 $\rightarrow$ 1.3 $\rightarrow$ 1.3.1 $\rightarrow$ 2.0 $\rightarrow$ 2.1 $\rightarrow$ 2.2).

IDL version 5.4 was installed on ``kurp.hut.fi'' (2 floating licenses) and on two Linux computers dedicated to solar research. The incompatibility issues with Debian/GNU/Linux of versions 5.2 and 5.3 have been resolved and an upgrade from 5.1 was possible. Version 5.4 drops support for GIF graphic output.

For electronics development, PADS PowerLogic and PowerPCB 2.1 were used, together with Lattice/Vantis DesignDirect 1.1 and ispDesignEXPERT CPLD development systems. Evaluation of Xilinx Foundation v2.1i VHDL tools for FPGA development was started.