- Home
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What Computer Should I Buy to Run ZEMAX?
What Computer Should I Buy to Run ZEMAX?
- By Mark Nicholson
- Published 13 December 2007
- Frequently Asked Questions
-
Rating:
Frequently Asked Questions
How Important is the Hard Drive?
Not very. Modern hard drives start at around 80GB, and most ZEMAX files are small. We suggest 200 MB or so free space for ZEMAX.
The exception is when users undertake large opto-mechanical stray light or illumination analysis. In these cases, users often save all rays to a ray database, and then query that database with ZEMAX' powerful filter capabilities. These databases are often hundreds of megabytes or more. For these users, large, fast disks and RAID arrays can be appropriate.
Is Intel better than AMD?
We're neutral on this. Both manufacturers' processors work fine. ZEMAX is written in 100% C, and is then compiled to machine code. We don't do any specific processor optimization or machine-code hacks.
How Can I Check Before I Buy?
The ZEMAX demonstration version does not require a hardware key or a driver to be installed. It supports exactly the same performance test as the full version, however. Best of all, if you install the demonstration version, you can then copy the entire /zemax demo folder onto a USB thumb drive and run it from there. So, you can simply move the thumb drive from machine to machine, and test real performance easily.
Does ZEMAX Run on a Macintosh?
ZEMAX will run on Intel-processor based Macs running Windows XP via either Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop. A USB key is needed as Macs do not have parallel ports. As long as XP is running normally, ZEMAX will install and run using the normal installation procedure. Note that ZEMAX Development Corporation cannot provide support on installing BootCamp, Parallels Desktop or Windows XP on your Macintosh computer. For more information, please see the Knowledge Base article, "How to Run ZEMAX on an Intel-based Macintosh computer".
Does ZEMAX Run Under Emulation?
In principle, if an emulator was perfect, ZEMAX would not be able to tell if it was running under a "real" Windows machine or in an emulated environment. Unfortunately, current emulators are far from perfect.
We have heard from users who run ZEMAX under VMWare on Linux machines. They report that calculations run at approximately 80% of "native" speed, but that graphics (and particularly the OpenGL Shaded Graphics) are noticeably slower. (This is compared to simply running Windows on the same machine directly). However, note that we do not support running under emulation: if it works then fine, but if not, we can't help!
What is your preferred version of Windows?
ZEMAX runs under all current versions of Windows. Our preferred version is XP Pro, in either 32 or 64 bit versions. ZEMAX runs perfecty under Vista, in both 32 and 64-bit versions, but many users find Vista clunky compared to XP. We at ZDC will stay with XP for as long as we can!
Not very. Modern hard drives start at around 80GB, and most ZEMAX files are small. We suggest 200 MB or so free space for ZEMAX.
The exception is when users undertake large opto-mechanical stray light or illumination analysis. In these cases, users often save all rays to a ray database, and then query that database with ZEMAX' powerful filter capabilities. These databases are often hundreds of megabytes or more. For these users, large, fast disks and RAID arrays can be appropriate.
Is Intel better than AMD?
We're neutral on this. Both manufacturers' processors work fine. ZEMAX is written in 100% C, and is then compiled to machine code. We don't do any specific processor optimization or machine-code hacks.
How Can I Check Before I Buy?
The ZEMAX demonstration version does not require a hardware key or a driver to be installed. It supports exactly the same performance test as the full version, however. Best of all, if you install the demonstration version, you can then copy the entire /zemax demo folder onto a USB thumb drive and run it from there. So, you can simply move the thumb drive from machine to machine, and test real performance easily.
Does ZEMAX Run on a Macintosh?
ZEMAX will run on Intel-processor based Macs running Windows XP via either Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop. A USB key is needed as Macs do not have parallel ports. As long as XP is running normally, ZEMAX will install and run using the normal installation procedure. Note that ZEMAX Development Corporation cannot provide support on installing BootCamp, Parallels Desktop or Windows XP on your Macintosh computer. For more information, please see the Knowledge Base article, "How to Run ZEMAX on an Intel-based Macintosh computer".
Does ZEMAX Run Under Emulation?
In principle, if an emulator was perfect, ZEMAX would not be able to tell if it was running under a "real" Windows machine or in an emulated environment. Unfortunately, current emulators are far from perfect.
We have heard from users who run ZEMAX under VMWare on Linux machines. They report that calculations run at approximately 80% of "native" speed, but that graphics (and particularly the OpenGL Shaded Graphics) are noticeably slower. (This is compared to simply running Windows on the same machine directly). However, note that we do not support running under emulation: if it works then fine, but if not, we can't help!
What is your preferred version of Windows?
ZEMAX runs under all current versions of Windows. Our preferred version is XP Pro, in either 32 or 64 bit versions. ZEMAX runs perfecty under Vista, in both 32 and 64-bit versions, but many users find Vista clunky compared to XP. We at ZDC will stay with XP for as long as we can!
2 Responses to "What Computer Should I Buy to Run ZEMAX?" 
|
said this on 08 Nov 2005 12:05:03 PM PDT
I have run a performance test using the zoom lens sample file on a couple of computer systems. On my AMD Sempron with 1MByte of RAM I got the following numbers; 181.95k rays/sec 2.91 million ray-surfaces/sec 3.25k system updates/sec. When I upgraded to an AMD 3800 Dual Core I got the following; 376.47k rays/sec 6.02 million ray-surfaces/sec 4.77k system updates/sec using two CPUs and 2MBytes of RAM. The video card is a NVidia 6600. It is the same one used in both systems. Hope this helps.
|
Author)|
said this on 08 May 2007 3:23:14 PM PDT
Is the 64-bit version of Zemax available yet?
{Not yet, but the existing 32-bit code runs without problems on 64-bit versions on Windows.)
|