Dear all,
A Journal editor is requesting the minimum hardware requirements to run GRASS. I found a 20 year old unsigned post [0] with some hints, but certainly things have changed since. Can anyone shed some light on modern requirements?
Thank you.
[0] https://www.gislounge.com/system-requirements-for-grass/
–
Luís Moreira de Sousa
Im Grund 6
CH-8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)79 812 62 65
Email: luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch
On Tue, 13 Jun 2017, Luís Moreira de Sousa wrote:
A Journal editor is requesting the minimum hardware requirements to run
GRASS. I found a 20 year old unsigned post [0] with some hints, but
certainly things have changed since. Can anyone shed some light on modern
requirements?
Luís,
My immediate response is that this is a meaningless question; that is, one
asked out of ignorance of computers and software. The requirements really
depend on what types of analyses will be done with grass and how large are
the data sets that will be applied.
For example, most of the time I analyze spatial data on a 32-bit
Slackware-14.1 workstation with 2 cores and 4G RAM. But, for hydrological
modeling with DEM resulution of 1m x 1m over a ~40 ha area, I run the models
on a 64-bit Slackware-14.2 host with 4 cores (and no more than 2 cores per
process) with 8G RAM. The modeling time on the older host is excessive; on
the faster one runs could take up to 9 days.
HTH,
Rich
Dear Rich, in general I agree with you. They also asked for my Fax number, this particular journal seems to be still in the XX century.
However, there are some basic clues I could give. For instance, can GRASS run on a 16-bit system? Or 8-bit? What is the minimum RAM required to launch the GRASS console?
Thank you.
–
Luís Moreira de Sousa
Im Grund 6
CH-8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)79 812 62 65
Email: luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch
URL: https://sites.google.com/site/luismoreiradesousa
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Hardware requirements to run GRASS
Local Time: June 13, 2017 2:51 PM
UTC Time: June 13, 2017 12:51 PM
From: rshepard@appl-ecosys.com
To: GRASS user list grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
On Tue, 13 Jun 2017, Luís Moreira de Sousa wrote:
A Journal editor is requesting the minimum hardware requirements to run
GRASS. I found a 20 year old unsigned post [0] with some hints, but
certainly things have changed since. Can anyone shed some light on modern
requirements?
Luís,
My immediate response is that this is a meaningless question; that is, one
asked out of ignorance of computers and software. The requirements really
depend on what types of analyses will be done with grass and how large are
the data sets that will be applied.
For example, most of the time I analyze spatial data on a 32-bit
Slackware-14.1 workstation with 2 cores and 4G RAM. But, for hydrological
modeling with DEM resulution of 1m x 1m over a ~40 ha area, I run the models
on a 64-bit Slackware-14.2 host with 4 cores (and no more than 2 cores per
process) with 8G RAM. The modeling time on the older host is excessive; on
the faster one runs could take up to 9 days.
HTH,
Rich
grass-user mailing list
On Tue, 13 Jun 2017, Luís Moreira de Sousa wrote:
However, there are some basic clues I could give. For instance, can GRASS
run on a 16-bit system? Or 8-bit? What is the minimum RAM required to
launch the GRASS console?
Luís,
Then let me suggest you look at the Dell website and use the specs for a
mid-level desktop system. A minimum of 32-bit CPU would be one end of the
spectrum, but to be realistic for a system that would be suitable for
several more years, I'd go with a 64-bit system, at least 4G RAM, and 500G
of hard drive (preferably SSD). Of courze, the operating system for the
hardware is also important and one should remember that GRASS was developed
to run on hardware running various flavors of UNIX so linux or freeBSD would
maximize use of the hardware. (Disclosure: the latter is my personal opinion
based on running my business on only linux and F/OSS for the past 20 years.)
HTH,
Rich
On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 2:59 PM, Luís Moreira de Sousa
<luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch> wrote:
Dear Rich, in general I agree with you. They also asked for my Fax number,
this particular journal seems to be still in the XX century.However, there are some basic clues I could give. For instance, can GRASS
run on a 16-bit system? Or 8-bit?
Probably 
If you still find such machines... I'd write 32bit
minimum, nice-to-have: 64bit.
Some hints are on these pages:
https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Software_requirements_specification
https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_GIS_Performance
What is the minimum RAM required to launch the GRASS console?
I guess that without the GUI something like 300MB are enough. Most RAM
need is driven by the data, so large(r) data require more RAM as
indicated by Rich.
Best,
Markus
PS: The cited text was written by David A. Hastings 2 decades ago (see
the last line in the old posting),
original: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/GIS-GRASS/index.html
--
Markus Neteler, PhD
http://www.mundialis.de - free data with free software
http://grass.osgeo.org
http://courses.neteler.org/blog
On 13/06/17 17:01, Markus Neteler wrote:
On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 2:59 PM, Luís Moreira de Sousa
<luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch> wrote:Dear Rich, in general I agree with you. They also asked for my Fax number,
this particular journal seems to be still in the XX century.However, there are some basic clues I could give. For instance, can GRASS
run on a 16-bit system? Or 8-bit?Probably
minimum, nice-to-have: 64bit.Some hints are on these pages:
https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Software_requirements_specification
https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_GIS_PerformanceWhat is the minimum RAM required to launch the GRASS console?
I guess that without the GUI something like 300MB are enough. Most RAM
need is driven by the data, so large(r) data require more RAM as
indicated by Rich.
The nice thing about GRASS GIS (and I think that not many other software packages have this), however, that many modules can be run using low RAM as well (see the raster modules with the memory option and the GRASS_VECTOR_LOWMEM environment variable). This allows to run complex analyses on large datasets with low levels of RAM. You just have to be ready to wait 
Moritz
I am getting old. The most recent 16-bit CPU released by Intel was the 80286 (I though all the x86 family were so). In the early 1990s we had two of these at Highschool - the first computers I ever used to do something other than playing games.
These old processors could only address 16 MB of RAM, therefore we can easily exclude them from the list of supported hardware.
Cheers.
–
Luís Moreira de Sousa
Im Grund 6
CH-8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)79 812 62 65
Email: luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch
URL: https://sites.google.com/site/luismoreiradesousa
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Hardware requirements to run GRASS
Local Time: June 13, 2017 5:53 PM
UTC Time: June 13, 2017 3:53 PM
From: mlennert@club.worldonline.be
To: Markus Neteler neteler@osgeo.org, Luís Moreira de Sousa luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch
Rich Shepard rshepard@appl-ecosys.com, GRASS user list grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
On 13/06/17 17:01, Markus Neteler wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 2:59 PM, Luís Moreira de Sousa
> wrote:
>> Dear Rich, in general I agree with you. They also asked for my Fax number,
>> this particular journal seems to be still in the XX century.
>>
>> However, there are some basic clues I could give. For instance, can GRASS
>> run on a 16-bit system? Or 8-bit?
>
> Probably
> minimum, nice-to-have: 64bit.
>
> Some hints are on these pages:
> https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Software_requirements_specification
> https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_GIS_Performance
>
>> What is the minimum RAM required to launch the GRASS console?
>
> I guess that without the GUI something like 300MB are enough. Most RAM
> need is driven by the data, so large(r) data require more RAM as
> indicated by Rich.
The nice thing about GRASS GIS (and I think that not many other software
packages have this), however, that many modules can be run using low RAM
as well (see the raster modules with the memory option and the
GRASS_VECTOR_LOWMEM environment variable). This allows to run complex
analyses on large datasets with low levels of RAM. You just have to be
ready to wait
Moritz
Hi,
Take the minimum requirements that you use for your analysis. Otherwise use this:
512MB RAM
Single core 1GHz 32Bit x86 CPU
10GB HD
Linux Debian 7 OS headless
Best regards
Soeren
Am 13.06.2017 11:33 AM schrieb “Luís Moreira de Sousa” <luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch>:
Dear all,
A Journal editor is requesting the minimum hardware requirements to run GRASS. I found a 20 year old unsigned post [0] with some hints, but certainly things have changed since. Can anyone shed some light on modern requirements?
Thank you.
[0] https://www.gislounge.com/system-requirements-for-grass/
–
Luís Moreira de Sousa
Im Grund 6
CH-8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)79 812 62 65
Email: luis.de.sousa@protonmail.ch
URL: https://sites.google.com/site/luismoreiradesousa
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