Computational Biophysics Workshop - Urbana, April 17-21, 2017

Laptop Requirements

The TCBG Workshop Tutorials require up-to-date hardware, operating systems, and software versions. Minimum requirements for laptops are provided below. Configurations that provide less than the minimum requirements may function poorly, or not at all.

Hardware Requirements

  • Windows
    • Operating System: 7,8 or 10
    • Memory: 1 GB RAM
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz CPU (or comparable)
    • Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 320M, or comparable
  • Mac
    • Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later
    • Memory: 1 GB RAM
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz CPU (or comparable)
    • Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 320M, or comparable
  • Linux
    • Operating System: Any reliable Linux distribution released within the last three years.
    • Memory: 1 GB RAM
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz CPU (or comparable)
    • Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 320M, or comparable

Please note the above are bare minimum requirements; more power and memory is desirable for all the above systems. For example, 512 MB RAM on a Mac will be functional, but very slow-going through the tutorials!

Software Requirements

Visual Molecular Dynamics - VMD
For molecular modelling, the tutorials use VMD. You can download the latest version of VMD for your operating system from http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Development/Download/download.cgi?PackageName=VMD. See the User and Installation guides for installation instructions.

Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics - NAMD
For numerical simulation, the tutorials use NAMD. You can download the latest version of NAMD for your operating system from http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Development/Download/download.cgi?PackageName=NAMD. See the NAMD User's Guide for installation and usage instructions.

DNA origami tutorial
For those interested in the DNA origami tutorial, please install the following software ahead of time, and install Cadnano last.

Please go to the Maya 2015 link , select "Maya 2015", your operating system, and language, and select install now. You will need to make an account, but you will get a free educational license of Maya.

Anaconda, Python 2.7 version Go to the link, select your operating system, and the appropriate version of Python. You want version 2.7, if you're using the version of Cadnano selected below.

Cadnano Use the platform-specific installers, which are compatible with Maya 2015 and Python 2.7. Download the installer and follow the instructions.

Plotting Program
For some tutorials, a program for plotting graphs is necessary. Some recommended utilities include:

Text Editor
A basic text editor program is used in some tutorial. Most likely one came with your operating system. Some options for editors are liste below:
  • Windows: NotePad
  • Unix: nedit
  • Mac: TextEdit