Computing

High-resolution microCT imaging produces large amounts of data, as shown clearly in the example on the right. This knee measurement of a mouse was made using a µCT 50 and comprises 7800 images with a matrix size of 4kx4k and 2 bytes per voxel, giving a total size of 260 GB.

To enable 3D analysis of such large data sets, SCANCO Medical microCT systems are supplied with powerful HPE servers running either Microsoft Windows or OpenVMS. Both highly stable, multitasking platforms allow measurement, reconstruction, analysis and archiving to be performed simultaneously.

The exact computer configuration is customized to best suit your requirements, and systems can be expanded easily with additional computers. Computers are configured to your environment (network configuration, printer setup, account setup etc.) and carry HPE's three-year worldwide hardware warranty.

For more computing power, multiple computers can connected to our SWAP Platform (Microsoft Windows OS) or can be clustered (OpenVMS) for automatic workload distribution and to provide multiple workplaces.

Microsoft Windows Platform

	Minimal	Typical	Power
Computer	HPE Proliant ML110	HPE Proliant ML350	HPE Proliant ML350/DL380
CPU cores	8	20	40
RAM	64 GB	128 GB	1 TB
GPU	none	RTX A4000	RTX A6000
Disk storage	12 TB RAID 1	80 TB RAID 6	>120 TB RAID 6
Tape drive	none	LTO-7 15 TB	LTO-8 30 TB
Monitor	24" 1920x1080	27" 2560x1440	32" 3840x1920

OpenVMS Platform

	Minimal	Typical	Power
Computer	HPE Integrity rx2800 i6	HPE Integrity rx2800 i6	HPE Integrity rx2800 i6
CPU cores	4	8	16
RAM	32 GB	64 GB	384 GB
Cluster	no	no	yes
Disk storage	10 TB RAID 5	40 TB RAID 6	>80 TB RAID 6
Tape drive	LTO-6 6 TB	LTO-7 15 TB	LTO-8 30 TB
Monitor	24" 1920x1200	24" 1920x1200	24" 1920x1200

Disk storage

Storage capacity can be expanded by adding external hard disk towers to your microCT system. Particularly attractive is the addition of disk towers configured with RAID 6 disk arrays, which store your data on multiple disks automatically, helping to protect you from data loss. Hot spare disks can be included for extra peace of mind.

Disk tower	Disk type	Spindle speed RPM	Capacity RAID 5/6	Redundancy
D3600	SAS	15'000	20 TB (12 x 2 TB)	(2/RAID 6)
D3600	SAS	7'200	40 TB (6 x 8 TB)	(1/RAID 5)
D3600	SAS	7'200	200 TB (12 x 20 TB)	(2/RAID 6)

SAS disks are recommended for highest performance.

A maximum of 5 D3600 arrays can be connected in cascade per RAID controller. HPE disk towers carry a three-year guarantee (SAS enterprise) with next working day exchange in the event of disk failure.

Tape archiving

The large size of microCT data sets makes it impractical to store all data on disk at all time. To address this issue SCANCO Medical supplies LTO-format Ultrium magnetic tape drives for archiving data as part of an integrated data managementconcept. This magnetic tape-based approach allows unlimited expansion of data storage capacity.

Media in the industry-standard LTO format are manufactured by many leading companies, including HPE, Sony and Imation, and are readily available from good computer suppliers. (Note that the advertised capacity of tape media is based on data storage using 50% compression. MicroCT data does not allow such high compression, so effective media storage capacity for archiving is down to half the advertised value.)

Distributed computing on Microsoft Windows Platform

SCANCO Medical µCT Software can run on Microsoft Windows single computers, but also in an evironment with multiple computers connecting to the main SWAP (Scanco Windows Application Platform) server. This allows to distribute the workload to a set of computers, where the different capabilities (CPU power, memory, GPU cards) are considered when distributing the workload among the participating workers.

Clustering

SCANCO Medical uses OpenVMS, a highly reliable, multitasking, real-time operating system that provides integrated, proven support for clustering. In an OpenVMS cluster multiple computers connected via Ethernet share resources such as processors and disks to balance workload.

For microCT systems, clustering ensures that reconstruction and 3D analysis tasks are distributed automatically among several computers, avoiding bottlenecks where a single computer is overloaded while others are idle. From a user's perspective the cluster is invisible: interactive tasks can be performed at any clustered computer.

OpenVMS's clustering capability protects your investment in computing hardware for your microCT system. New and old computers are combined to form a single cluster, seamlessly expanding your data analysis capacity.