Hi all, tl;dr -- We're trying to figure out if there is any interest in free, cloud-hosted CASPER tools: please fill out the survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeetuYWr3WPnUDGjdTznEFVptY_Y0mFXaTsKrDEAEAKSBVRbA/viewform?usp=sf_link
------ For as long as I can remember, people have talked about running CASPER tools in the cloud. The idea would be that, as a CASPER user, you could spin up a cloud-based machine virtual machine which would be set up with a known good combination of OS / Matlab / CASPER tools. This would be free to use, and would, hopefully, make it much easier to get started with the tools without having to overcome the various compatibility issues which plague us all. There are a variety of hurdles to getting such a cloud-platform working. For one, Matlab and ISE/Vivado both require licenses, from Mathworks and Xilinx, respectively. Also, for this to be free to the end-user somebody would have to provide the computing infrastructure, either by buying time (or obtaining donations) on a public cloud service provider or by purchasing hardware and hosting it themselves. We (CASPERites in Berkeley and South Africa Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)) have been making some progress on the licensing front -- thanks to Adam Isaacson in SA for starting the ball rolling -- and are considering how we might provide computing resources. However, one big unknown is how many CASPER collaborators would actually use such a service. Maybe you're all very happy using your own servers/desktops/laptops to run the CASPER tools. To this end, I threw together a quick survey, to figure out how many people might use a cloud-based toolflow, and how much computing resources we might have to dedicated to making a system viable. The survey also asks where your institution is (so we know where computing resources should be located), and whether this is a public or private organization (which has licensing implications). If you feel like participating (even if it's just to say you have no interest in the cloud) please fill out the survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeetuYWr3WPnUDGjdTznEFVptY_Y0mFXaTsKrDEAEAKSBVRbA/viewform?usp=sf_link It'll only take 30 seconds. Thanks Jack -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "[email protected]" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
