General Requirements
In the menu to the right you will find specific requirements for each platform.
These requirements are common to all platforms:
- A DVD drive for installation.
- A working network card and internet connection is recommended during installation.
- At least 1 GB memory, but 4 GB per processor core or more is recommended.
- 1-4 GB of disk space, depending on your licensed products and installation options.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or later to view and print the COMSOL documentation in PDF format.
Floating Network Licenses
Floating network licenses are supported on heterogeneous networks of Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. Both the license manager and the COMSOL application can run on either Windows, Linux, or Mac, and a single computer can run both of them.
COMSOL Multiphysics System Requirements for Linux
System Requirements for 32-bit Linux
- GNU C Library version 2.3.6 or later
- Linux kernel 2.6.18 or later
- Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor or later.
System Requirements for 64-bit Linux
- GNU C Library version 2.3.6 or later
- Linux kernel 2.6.18 or later
- A PC with one of these processors: AMD with AMD64 or Intel with EM64T.
Officially Supported Linux Distributions
The following Linux distributions are officially supported by COMSOL.
| Platform | Distribution |
|---|---|
| 32-bit Linux | Debian 5.0, 6.0, OpenSUSE 11.3, RedHat Enterprise 5* and 6, Ubuntu 10.04 |
| 64-bit Linux | Debian 5.0, 6.0, OpenSUSE 11.3, RedHat Enterprise 5* and 6, Ubuntu 10.04 |
Graphics System Requirements
Prefer hardware rendering for performance reasons. Drivers supporting OpenGL version 1.4 are required. For using the Optimize for Quality setting in graphics preferences you need OpenGL 2.0. Prefer using drivers from you graphics card vendor. Alternatively, use software rendering. The Nouveau video driver is only supported for software rendering. Hardware rendering requires at least 24-bit color graphics. Software rendering also supports 16-bit color graphics.
Supported AMD Graphics Cards
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version |
|---|---|---|
| FirePro™ V4800 | Ubuntu 10.04 LTS | 8.723.1-10048a-09850C-ATI |
Supported NVIDIA® Graphics Cards
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version |
|---|---|---|
| Quadro™ FX 1800 | Debian 6.0 | 195.36.31 |
The graphics cards listed above have been rigorously tested for compatibility with COMSOL Multiphysics.
Optional LiveLink for MATLAB Requirements
LiveLink for MATLAB is compatible with MATLAB R2011b and R2012a.
xterm and csh are required.
The xterm program is necessary for the command comsol
server matlab. The csh program is needed to call
MATLAB functions from COMSOL.
To install the missing packages on Debian and Ubuntu, type
sudo apt-get install xterm csh
To install the missing packages on RedHat Enterprise and Fedora, type
sudo yum install xterm tcsh
To install the missing packages on OpenSUSE, type
sudo zypper install xterm tcsh
Optional Products for CAD Interoperability
The following products support import of 3D CAD files on Linux platforms:
| Product | Supported file formats | Required products |
|---|---|---|
| CAD Import Module | ACIS (SAT), IGES, Parasolid, Pro/E, and STEP | COMSOL Multiphysics |
Parallel System Requirements
COMSOL supports shared-memory parallelism and distributed-memory parallelism for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux. For distributed-memory parallelism, COMSOL supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and all computers in the cluster must use the same Linux version and should have similar hardware.
Internet Protocol Support
IPv4 and IPv6 are supported on all Linux platforms.
