What Kind of Workstation Should I Buy? Seven-Fold Criteria for Hardware and Software.

The problem of designing a workstation suitable for an individual scientist or group of scientists are addressed from an abstract point of view. A set of seven criteria concerning hardware are presented that should be considered when assessing ones needs and comparing various available products. Seven categories of software are also discussed that are critical for someone doing code development, testing and production runs on a remote computer mainframe or supercomputer. The criteria discussed are intended to be a model checklist relevant especially for people doing code development and production work in scientific computation. After discussing criteria for evaluating workstations, two examples are given of inexpensive yet powerful systems that should be possible to assemble today. Author