The computer at my desk is a normal PC, but instead of Windows I use Linux, as I find it is a better for doing scientific computing. I use this computer to login to two different supercomputers at my work. The first is the massive one that I have a picture of on my profile. The other is smaller, but I don’t have to share it with as many other people. I’m actually in the process of buying another 64 CPUs for this computer, to make my calculations faster.
As for software, I tend to use my own software a lot. I write my programs in Python and C++ programming languages. Otherwise, I use technical software written by other laboratories.
My computer is a Mac laptop. I like it because it’s light and I can carry it around so that I can do my work anywhere I am.
Like Iain I can login to a supercomputer (also called a cluster) which has about 1,500 CPUs (about 350 times more powerful than my laptop). It runs Linux and all my processing is performed on there.
I either run scientific software written by other scientists around the world or write my own. I write my programs in languages like perl, R and C.
The great thing about computational biology (also called bioinformatics) is that the majority of software we use is open source which means it is free to download and use, but you also see the code so that you can improve it or change it.
I have a lightweight PC (a Sony Vaio) so that I can take it anywhere and have it with me all the time. But all the serious number crunching in my research team is done on a cluster like the ones that @maoliain and @chriscole use. We write software in Perl, C, Java, Python and R mostly, and we use other people’s programs a lot of the time too.
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Chris commented on :
My computer is a Mac laptop. I like it because it’s light and I can carry it around so that I can do my work anywhere I am.
Like Iain I can login to a supercomputer (also called a cluster) which has about 1,500 CPUs (about 350 times more powerful than my laptop). It runs Linux and all my processing is performed on there.
I either run scientific software written by other scientists around the world or write my own. I write my programs in languages like perl, R and C.
The great thing about computational biology (also called bioinformatics) is that the majority of software we use is open source which means it is free to download and use, but you also see the code so that you can improve it or change it.
Nick commented on :
I have a lightweight PC (a Sony Vaio) so that I can take it anywhere and have it with me all the time. But all the serious number crunching in my research team is done on a cluster like the ones that @maoliain and @chriscole use. We write software in Perl, C, Java, Python and R mostly, and we use other people’s programs a lot of the time too.