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Date:         Thu, 30 Jul 1992 18:20:02 -0400
Reply-To:     "Harlene C. Gogan: RTI's PC-SAS Technical Consultant"
              <RTIHCG@RTI.BITNET>
From:         "Harlene C. Gogan: RTI's PC-SAS Technical Consultant"
              <RTIHCG@RTI.BITNET>
Subject:      Wanted: A machine to run SAS

_____________________________________________________________________
CONTENT:    Question: opinions solicited
SUMMARY:    We need to purchase machine for running LARGE SAS jobs,
            i.e., LOTS of observations, CPU intensive models
REL/PLTF:   what do you suggest for task at hand
E-ADDR:     RTIHCG@RTI.BITNET
NAME:       Harlene C. Gogan
ADDRESS:    Research Triangle Institute, PO 12194,
            Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
PHONE:      (919) 541-6565
______________________________________________________________________

The dilemma--we need to purchase a machine that will run LARGE SAS jobs.
The definition of LARGE is 80,000 observations per year, 14 years of
data, say 25 categorical numeric variables (average of 3-5 categories)
and 5 continuous variables.  These are birth records for North Carolina.
We want to model infant mortality.  Thus we must run polytomous logits
with a 5 category outcome: death in 1st 24 hours
                           death in 1st week      (mutually exclusive)
                           death in first month   (categories)
                           survival, low birth weight
                           survival, normal birth weight
(please note, though I said 25 categorical variables, these would probably
be entered as independent dummy variables, i.e, 3 categories=2 dummies,
5 categories=4 dummies, etc.)

We have been attempting to run these models on a mainframe.  Since we
are not for profit, we must buy time on a local university computer--
thus we pay REAL money for computing.  A single model using whites only
costs $600-800.  At that price we cannot afford to do the research that
is required without resorting to some sampling strategy, or reducing
categories, which is unappealing from a research perspective.

We have a grant to purchase equipment and have approximately $14,500
to spend.  What machine would you suggest for datasets/models of this
magnitude and why?  We would like to be able to integrate this machine
into our DECnet network (so we could at least FTP data in/out).

We are aware that mainframe "costs" are a way of recooping the "people"
costs of operating and maintaining a mainframe.  The costs associated with
the machine we buy (for installation, operation, etc.) would not be paid
out in the same manner, i.e, we already get paid, just the scope of our
job changes to include operations, etc.  We may see "real" costs paid
out if we hire a consultant to do installation/optimization for SAS.

Our in-house computer operating system people do exclusively DEC VMS
and DOS (which includes PATHWORKS).  We'd be on our own for other
platforms, i.e, if we needed help, we'd need to hire a consultant.
In the future, I would like to see the machine we buy fully integrated
into PATHWORKS, so we could have those capabilities in addition to the
ones being integrated into DECnet gets us.  (I know I'm using integrated
loosely, it's not readily definable.)

I asked SI people at last years SUGI (New Orleans) this question (before
we had $ available for a machine), and they suggested a RISC platform.
Given the politics of our computing situation (at that time we had
some UNIX people on site, and the VMS people were toying with getting
into UNIX), a DECstation 5000 was suggested (with 1Gb hard disk and
32Mb memory).

Does this advice still seem solid, given what the world of SAS computing
has learned since then?  Are there specifics that I need to be aware of
and be sure to order?

Thank you for your advice.

________________
         Unafraid to open Pandora's box, she bravely queried SAS-L.

Harlene C. Gogan
RTI's PC-SAS Technical Consultant
RTIHCG@RTI.BITNET
RTIHCG%ZEUS@RTI.RTI.ORG
RTI, PO12194, RTP,NC 27709
(919) 541-6565