June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 1 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco LHCb / CERN

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 2 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Question about Windows-NT The future of Windows NT at CERN is being questioned. Has CERN to support Windows-NT as a strategic platform for computing? Has LHCb to support Windows-NT?

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 3 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Answer There are strong arguments to say that Windows NT has to be supported at CERN and specially in LHCb.YES

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 4 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Market trend The PC platform is the most extended and purchased in the world Microsoft is a leader of the market as shown in the stock price.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 5 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Documentation The Windows NT operating system and all the Microsoft layered software is completely documented by Official Microsoft Manuals as well as third party books. All the updated Microsoft documentation is directly available from the Web if you are a MSDN member. A database with Microsoft “papers” dedicated to specific subjects is also available accessible through a search engine.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 6 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Training One of the specific problems of the HEP community is due to the lack of training on Windows NT platform. Microsoft provides a training program with exams and certificates for users of Microsoft products called MSCP. Assisting to a course is not enough! The choices are Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Solutions Developer, Professional and Trainer with Internet options.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 7 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Software availability There is a huge amount of available commercial software for all possible needs. Complete range of solutions. The competence in the market keeps the prices down. Every day more commercial products are being developed in a NT platform and then ported to other platforms. Most of the components can be reused as plug-and-play between applications. OLE/DCOM.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 8 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Productivity Developer productivity seems to be increased by using the NT platform. Visual Studio provides a complete development environment for programmers of C++, Fortran and J++ and allows integration of object-oriented design tools. Programmers do not start from scratch, a complete set of components are available.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 9 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Maintenance Software and hardware maintenance can be fully outsourced. Software updates through the Microsoft Developer Network Subscription every three months in CD-ROM and from their web site. Big investment and commitment from Microsoft to provide a low cost solution to maintain and upgrade a large amount of NT workstations. Multi-user and clustering solutions coming soon.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 10 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Cost The cost per seat of a complete NT workstation is affordable. Using as example the current Microsoft Prices for the University of Oxford for licenses per workstation: –MS Office Pro (Excel,Word,PowerPoint, Access, Outlook) costs 200 CHF. –Microsoft Project 98 costs 140 CHF. –Microsoft Visual Studio (C++ compiler) costs 300 CHF. –Microsoft FrontPage98 costs 100 CHF. –Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 costs 35 CHF.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 11 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Current Drawbacks Windows NT and most of the new products from Microsoft are brand new and still full of bugs.New versions coming every month! At CERN the NICE/NT solution to maintain NT machines seems to introduce a new degree of instability to the users. No good for real development environments. Low user support.

June 25, 1998 Is NT needed at CERN? Andreu Pacheco, LHCb / CERN 12 LHCb Computing Architecture Meeting Conclusions Windows NT should be supported by CERN and LHCb: –Market leader today. –Extensive documentation official and third party. –Training program. –Complete development environment (Visual Studio) with a large number of existing and reusable components. –Broad range of third party software available. –Maintenance can be outsourced and costs can be kept low. –Affordable cost of hardware and software.