What do I need to run ArahWeave?

As an absolute minimum:

• a PC computer with Pentium 1GHz MHz, 512 MB of RAM
• 10GB of free hard disk space in a separate partition
• 3 button Logitech mouse, keyboard, floppy, CD-ROM
• graphics card with 1024x768 in 65000 colors (16 bits per pixel)
• 17" monitor with 70Hz refresh rate

What do we recommend today (as of February 2010)?

• Intel® Core 2 Duo, Core i5 or Core i7
  If you have a little extra money, we really recommend a quad core processor.
  We have modified ArahWeave to support multiprocessing, and the fabric simulation on a dual core processor is two times faster, while quad core is 3.5 times faster.
• 2GB of RAM (will also work nicely with 512 MB, but RAM is so cheap)
  
• 500GB hard disk (out of which 50% is used for Linux, and 50% for other operating system of your choice). If money is not an objection, you should buy a 128 GB SSD disk. ArahWeave speed in browsing operations will greatly improve with SSD disk.
• 3 button Logitech wheel mouse, keyboard, floppy
• DVD/RW drive (DVD for Linux installation, DVDRW for backups)
• graphics card with 1600x1200 in 16 millions colors (24 bits per pixel). We have good experience with Nvidia, ATI and Matrox graphics cards.
• scanner
• 24" monitor or bigger with 1920x1200 resolution. Resolution is really important in a CAD, so don't save money on that.
• Epson line of ink jet printers: Epson Stylus Pro, Stylus Pro XL, Epson Stylus Color 400, 440, 600, 640, 800, 850, 1520, 3000, Epson Stylus Photo, Photo 700, Photo EX, Photo 750, Photo 1200, Photo 870, Photo 1270, Photo 890, Photo 1290, Stylus Color C70, C80, Stylus Photo 950, Stylus Photo 830, Stylus D68, StylusD120, Stylus Photo 2100/2200, Stylus 1400, Stylus R1800, Stylus R1900, Stylus R2400, Stylus R200, R220, R270, R285, R300, R320, R350, R360, R390, B300, B500DN, ME300, P50/T50. We can not support all brands of printers, since we develop drivers and colorimetry support for each printer. Some older HP printers are also suppoted, but without colorimetry.

Please note, that this is just a recommendation of what we consider cost effective purchase at a given moment. This is just a suggestion, if you would be buying a new computer. But it does not mean that that you can not use it productively on a less powerful configuration.

If color accuracy is very important to you:

You can consider buying GretagMacbeth Spectrolino. Spectrolino is supported directly from ArahWeave - you just attach it to the serial port of your computer, and you can add new yarn colors to your color palette in a matter of seconds. We are also using the same spectrophotometer, so you will get the best results if you use the same brand and model as we do.

If you plan to do jacquard:

You can also use graphical tablet under Linux. You should check the list of supported tablets prior to buying. We have good experience with Wacom Intuos 2 and 3. Wacom Intuos 4 also works, but requires installation of a driver from this site.

You will also need a scanner.
We recommend HP or Epson line of scanners, since they are supported well under Linux.
Check SANE web page to see if your scanner is supported under Linux.

If you are prepared to scan under Windows XY, you can buy any scanner you like, since they all come with an interface card and drivers.
Linux can then read the scanned file directly from the Win/DOS partition. There is no need to transfer scanned images by floppy.

Besides scanners, you may also wish to connect your digital camera to your Linux computer. Most digital cameras will work simply by attaching them via USB cable, and will be recognized as storage device (in the same way as an external hard disk or USB memory key).

We prefer you buy your hardware locally, so we receive only software support calls.

It is also possible to install Linux on a laptop computer.