AJA KONA LHI, Installation And Operation Manual

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KONA LHi Installation and Operation Manual — System Requirements
System Requirements
AJA Video recommends that your system meet minimum hardware and software requirements
to achieve a satisfactory level of performance when operating it. Here, we provide minimum
and recommended requirements and then discuss disk storage issues that should be
understood for proper system configuration.
Minimum and
Recommended
System and
Software
Requirements
The following table outlines the system hardware and software needed.
Understanding Disk
Storage Methods
The KONA LHi card, a MacPro, and Final Cut Pro, together offer an unprecedented level of
features and performance for audio/video post production applications. However, to ensure
performance and quality, the disk storage system used with the Apple computer must be able
to meet the demands of the media.
For uncompressed SD, AJA recommends that at a minimum, the disk storage system must be
able to provide and maintain a consistent 50 MB/sec transfer rate from the Apple computer to
disk (read/write). There are a variety of system configurations and peripherals that can provide
this level of performance.
For uncompressed single link HD, AJA recommends that at a minimum, the disk storage system
must be able to provide and maintain a consistent 200 MB/sec transfer rate from the Apple
computer to disk (read/write). There are a variety of system configurations and peripherals that
can provide this level of performance.
Item Recommended
Recommended KONA Driver for
Mac OSX and Final Cut Pro:
Note: always consult the release
notes for the AJA software
version you are running
(included with installer)
FCP 7.0.x - KONA driver version 9.0.1 (Snow Leopard and Leopard OS
compatible version)
FCP 7.0.x - KONA driver version 7.5.1 (Snow Leopard and Leopard OS
compatible version)
FCP 7.0.x - KONA driver version 7.1 (Snow Leopard and Leopard OS
compatible version)
FCP 7.0.x - KONA driver version 7.0 (Snow Leopard and Leopard OS
compatible version)
FCP 7.0.x - KONA driver version 6.5 (Leopard OS compatible version)
FCP 6.0.x - KONA driver version 6.0.3 (Leopard and Tiger OS
compatible version)
For the latest appropriate match for your software and hardware, visit:
http://www.aja.com/support/kona/kona-lhi.php
Macintosh Tower: Recommended KONA LHi System: Apple Mac Pro with Dual-Core
Intel Xeon Processors (2 GHz or better) with a minimum of 2GB RAM
for uncompressed SD or 4GB RAM for uncompressed HD. Use a Fibre
Channel or SCSI external RAID for uncompressed SD/HD storage.
Minimum KONA LHi System: Power Mac G5 (dual) PCI-Express, 2GHz
with 2GB RAM minimum for uncompressed SD or 4GB RAM for
uncompressed HD. Ensure your Macintosh has a PCI-Express slot for
compatibility. Use a Fibre Channel or SCSI external RAID for
uncompressed SD/HD storage.
Slot Placement: Visit our website and view this regularly updated
slot placement document:
http://www.aja.com/support/kona/kona-system-configuration.php
Internal Storage (SATA inside
Mac): Best suited for compressed SD/HD formats only
External Storage:
Note: see Storage Methods topic
that follows later in this Chapter
Ideally a RAID configuration with Fibre Channel or SCSI connection to
the Mac via qualified host bus adapter