Equipment
Database
- In the current implementation, communication between various database categories (demographic, family history) has been developed on a Windows Platform using Visual Basic to build the system logic. A front-end ProLiant DL 380 NT server supports the back-end, and all the related data are stored and managed by the SQL server. This server is designated for the HPAR to help with quicker response time, throughput and resource utilization for the HPAR
- Progeny Anywhere is an ActiveX control that is embedded into the application. This control allows the users to view the existing pedigree data graphically in a "pedigree view.” Data are fed from the SQL server into the Progeny Anywhere ActiveX object via a standard XML format. The ActiveX control formats the data and generates the pedigree
Hardware
The Section of Computational Genetic Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology assists many investigators in the analysis of pedigree data by providing guidance in the development of data collection tools for family history information. The analyses are performed using a Sun Microsystems Ultra 10 server (440 MHz processor, 256 megabytes of RAM, 26 gigabytes disk storage), Sun Microsystems SPARC Enterprise 3000 server (four 250 MHz processors, 36 gigabytes of disk storage, one gigabyte of RAM), two Sun Microsystems V880 servers (four 750 MHZ processors, 216 gigabytes of disk storage, four gigabytes of RAM) and three Compaq XP1000 alpha workstations (667 MHz processor, 256 megabytes of RAM, 18 gigabytes of disk storage) operating as servers and a Linux cluster of four 1-GHz Athlon workstations.