System Hardware and Software
Many people have asked us what kind of computer all this stuff
runs on. So, without any further ado:
Jan 1995 - July 1995: dec1
Hardware
DEC MIPS machine with 16 meg of ram, distributed FS, generic ethernet.
Operating system
Digital Unix, Ultrix 4.2.
System Load
The mud ran on this machine with varying CPU loads, but typically remained
below 1.5% CPU utilization. The mud at the time was only a meg or two big,
and the 16 meg of ram was more than enough.
July 1995 - Aug 1995: polaris
Hardware
Generic 586 with 32 meg of ram and 1 GB hard drive. Connected to network
via 10 MHz ethernet.
Operating system
Linux 1.1.59.
System Load
This machine utterly dwarfed the needs of the mud. Cpu load was so low as
to be unmeasureable, and memory use was on the order of 6%.
Aug 1995 - July 1998: sl9vg.dorms, dentin.ccb
Hardware
AMD 486 DX4-100 processor, generic VLB motherboard
48 meg of 70 ns parity RAM (non-EDO)
3-COM 3c509 combo ethernet card
Two Seagate 540 Mb IDE hard drives
Trident tgui 9440 video card, 2 meg video ram
No monitor
Generic 15 dollar keyboard
One 3.5 inch 1.44 meg floppy drive
One 5.25 inch 360 kb floppy drive
Operating system
Various versions of slackware and redhat linux, starting with kernel
1.2.8 and ending with 2.0.36. We also had DOS installed, but it
served only to consume needed disk space.
Linux - two partitions, 772 MB total
Linux Swap Space - two partitions, 47 MB total
Dos partitions (unused) - 205 MB total
System software
Services that were always running on this machine:
The Alter Aeon Mud
The Banished Lands Mud
The builders port for Alter and Banished
Web server for above muds, and other stuff
Mail server
FTP server
Additional services:
Standard network utilities
Multiple development and mail accounts
Full C, C++, Fortran, and other various compilers
XFree86 X-window server, with core X apps
All sorts of other goodies that come with Linux
Network Connection
Our network connection was provided through the grace of Utah State
University, and remained on campus until roughly June of 1998.
The network connection was 10-base T ethernet, into the USU fiber
backbone, and across a T3 to Salt Lake City where it connected to the
rest of the world.
System Load
With all the above mentioned stuff running on what would be considered
a very small machine, the question of lag often presented itself. It
should be noted that the hardware listed above ran all these applications,
servers, muds, and other stuff with little difficulty. Typical CPU loads
were around 13% for Alter Aeon, 9% for banished lands, and 1% for everything
else. Upwards of 75% of the power of this machine was unused, and there
was considerable room for expansion.
With all services and no users, load was approximately 20% CPU.
With all services and 50 users, load was approximately 22% CPU.
July 1998 - Apr 1999: dentiin.dentinmud.org
Hardware
Generic i686 processor, generic PCI motherboard
128 meg of EDO and SDRAM
3-COM 3c590 Vortex 100MHz ethernet
4.2 GB of fast SCSI-2 disk space
$9 el cheapo VGA card with similar monitor
Generic 15 dollar keyboard
One 3.5 inch 1.44 meg floppy drive
Operating system
Slackware Linux 4.0.
System software
Services that were always running on this machine:
The Alter Aeon Mud
The Banished Lands Mud
The builders port for Alter and Banished
Web server for above muds, and other stuff
Mail server
FTP server
Network Connection
Our network connection was provided through University of Maryland,
10 mbps ethernet.
System Load
Typical CPU loads were around 2% for Alter Aeon, 0.4% for banished
lands, and <1% for everything else.
Apr 1999 - Present: xirr.com
Hardware
K6-II 266 mhz processor in generic motherboard. 256 MB ram, 30 GB
disk space. On 100 mbps ethernet, with a 3com 3c905 card.
Operating system
Custom Linux, Slackware based.
System Load
Approximately 5% average system load. The muds resources have grown
with this bigger, faster machine available.
Linux makes this all possible.
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