[cam-users] Support options for CCM3 and Sun architectures

[William Collins]

Dear CCM/CAM community and AMWG:

We are evaluating our options for continued support of CCM3 and for Sun 
systems running Solaris.

Currently we maintain two options for running CCM3: (1. a frozen distribution 
dated Sep. 13, 2000; and (2. a mechanism for running CAM2 but with CCM3 
physics in place of CAM2 physics. This latter option is becoming increasingly 
difficult to maintain since the underlying architecture of CAM2 is evolving 
rapidly.

We have encountered a number of problems with testing CAM2 on the most recent 
versions of Solaris. As far as we and SCD can determine, these are traceable 
to bugs in the Sun Fortran 90 compilers. These problems have become 
sufficiently acute that we have stopped testing CAM2 on Suns for the time 
being. It is also our opinion that, for integrations of modest size, there 
are other computing platforms with superior price/performance ratios.

It would be helpful for us to know:

(1. Are you are still using CCM3 in your research?

(2. If you are using CCM3, do you use the frozen distribution or the CCM3 
physics option under the CAM distribution?

(3. If you are using CCM3, do you have plans to move to the CAM2 in the near 
future? If not, why not?

(4. Are your plans contingent on planned improvements or documentation of 
CAM2?

(5. Do you use Sun platforms for running or developing CCM3, CAM2, or both?

(6. Do you plan to continue using Suns in the future?

** Please send your responses to Jim McCaa by the end of April. **

Thanks,

Bill

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Bill Collins                            | wcollins@ucar.edu
Scientist III                           | http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cms/wcollins
National Center for Atmospheric Research|
P.O. Box 3000                           | voice: 303 497-1381
Boulder, CO. 80307-3000                 | fax:   303 497-1324
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