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Looks good
to meJ mike Mike Brown 1611 Wilmeth Road McKinney, TX 75069-8250 972.542.6000 800.433.8683 -----Original
Message----- Each of these computer configurations
(A, B, and C) is appropriate for a certain client size, i.e.. configuration A
for 1 - 100 precincts, etc. Or you tell me: what determines which
client employs which of the configurations A through C? Nel Mike is the best person
to tell you about performance issues. It never seems completely related
to the number of precincts but to the tasks the computer has to do. I've
asked him a few times about it so maybe I can relate it in his terms. Here goes: Damn near everything that
we run out there can be handled by a Small Scale Configuration A machine.
One exception would be a large central count site (12+ CC AccuVotes) where you
might want to have a separate Medium Scale Config B machine. It has 128MB
RAM, one 6.4GB EIDE hard drive, and a ZIP Drive for backup. The Medium
Scale Config B machine is for people who want redundancy. It
has a redundant power supply and a RAID5 array of four 9GB SCSI
hard disks. It also has 256MB RAM and a DAT Tape drive for
backup. It has space for a second processor, but it's not loaded.
Second processors usually slow processing down unless your running high graphic
content floating point software. Its over powered for uploads and
reporting, but just right for Central Count. This unit may be sold to an
account who thinks they need something bigger than a mini-tower to run
"ELECTION SOFTWARE!!!" The Large
Scale Config C machine is an "over-the-top"
machine. This unit has every bell and whistle in it. It's for those
customers who have nothing but money coming out of their ears and want to
flaunt it. Totally unnecessary for actually running elections but a very
impressive piece of equipment for customers to ogle. GEMS is a very
process-efficient program. Running on Windows NT helps. We already
provide 128MB of RAM on the unit which is usually enough to do most jobs.
But if you wanted it to do more, and do it faster, the memory can be increased
for a price. The only other item that is totally up to the customer is screen
size. Right now we offer 17", and 21" monitor upgrades (at a
price of course). Hope this helps you and
anybody else who always wondered. Mike is free to rebutt this if he wants
to challenge my accuracy of this picture. Ian |