System Requirements - 4.3b COMSOL Multiphysics®
These requirements are common to all platforms:
- 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.
- 1-5 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.
For further recommendations concerning hardware, please see our knowledgebase entry
Operating System Requirements
| Windows® | Mac OS X | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32-bit Operating Systems | Windows® 8 Windows® 7 Windows Server® 2008 Windows Vista® Windows Server® 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later Windows XP® with Service Pack 3 or later |
- | Debian® 5.0, 6.0 OpenSUSE® 11.3 RedHat® Enterprise Linux® 5* and 6 Ubuntu® 10.04 and 12.04 LTS |
| 64-bit Operating Systems | Windows® 8 Windows® 7 Windows Server® 2012 Windows Server® 2008 R2 Windows Server® 2008 Windows HPC Server® 2008 R2 Windows HPC Server® 2008 Windows Vista® Windows Server® 2003 x64 Edition with Service Pack 2 or later Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition with Service Pack 2 or later |
Mac OS X® 10.6, 10.7, or 10.8 | Debian® 5.0, 6.0 OpenSUSE® 11.3 RedHat® Enterprise Linux® 5* and 6 Ubuntu® 10.04 and 12.04 LTS |
*RedHat® Enterprise Linux® 5 is only supported for server, batch, and cluster operation.
OS Specific System Requirements
| 64-bit Mac OS® | Java® 1.6 In Mac OS X® 10.6 Java is included by default. In Mac OS X® 10.7 and 10.8 you need to download and install Java®. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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. |
Help System
The following browsers are not supported when the Help mode is set to Browser
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
Internet Protocol Support
| Windows® | Mac OS X | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPv4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IPv6 | Yes | No | Yes |
Parallel System Requirements
| Windows® | Mac OS X | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared-memory Parallelism | 32-bit and 64-bit Supported Versions of Windows® | 32-bit and 64-bit Mac OS X® | 32-bit and 64-bit Linux® Distributions |
| Distributed-memory Parallelism |
Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 Windows HPC Server® 2008 Windows HPC Server® 2008 R2 |
Not Supported |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux® 5 and 6 All computers in the cluster must use the same Linux version and should have similar hardware. It is recommended that OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) 1.4 or higher is installed. If you are using an RDMA-capable network fabrics a DAPL 1.2 or later version compliant driver or library is required. The software is usually provided with your hardware |
Officially Supported Compilers
| Windows® | Mac OS X | Linux® | |
|---|---|---|---|
| External Function C | Visual Studio® 2010 |
Intel® Compiler version 11.0 GCC 4.0 |
Intel® Compiler version 11.0 GCC 4.1 |
| Java API | JDK 1.6 or lower | JDK 1.6 or lower | JDK 1.6 or lower |
Graphics System Requirements
COMSOL® recommends hardware rendering for performance reasons. Hardware rendering requires drivers that support OpenGL® version 1.4. Windows® users may also use DirectX® version 9 on the local console. Hardware rendering requires at least 24-bit color graphics.
Alternatively, software rendering can be used. The Optimize for Quality setting in graphics preferences requires OpenGL® 2.0. Software rendering also supports 16 bit color graphics. For performance reasons, we recommend that the graphics card has at least 512MB memory.
| Card Model | Operating System | Driver Version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows® | FirePro™ V3900 | Windows® 7 | 8.911.3.1-120116a-132089E |
| FirePro™ V4900 | Windows® 7 | 8.85.7.1-110717a-124599C | |
| FirePro™ V5900 | Windows® 7 | 8.85.7.2-110901a1-125182C | |
| FirePro™ V7750 | Windows Server® 2008 R2 HPC | 8.540.0.0 | |
| FirePro™ V7800 | Windows® 7 | 8.85.7.1-110717a-122786C | |
| FirePro™ V7900 | Windows® 7 | 8.83.5.4-110520a-119550C | |
| FirePro™ W5000 | Windows® 7 | 8.982.2 | |
| FirePro™ W7000 | Windows® 7 | 8.982.2 | |
| Quadro™ FX 3800 | Windows Server® 2008 R2 | 8.17.12.7614 | |
| Quadro™ FX 540 | Windows® XP 32-Bit | 6.14.12.7614 | |
| Quadro™ FX 540 | Windows® XP 64-Bit | 6.14.12.7565 | |
| Quadro™ FX 550 | Windows Vista® Pro 64 Bit | 7.15.10.9746 | |
| Quadro™ FX 580 | Windows® 7 | 8.16.11.9175 | |
| Mac | GeForce™ GT 120 | Mac OS X® 10.6 | - |
| Linux® * | FirePro™ V4800 | Ubuntu® 10.04 LTS | 8.723.1-10048a-09850C-ATI |
| Quadro™ FX 1800 | Debian® 6.0 | 195.36.31 |
The graphics cards listed above have been rigorously tested for compatibility with COMSOL Multiphysics®. Please note, however, that other AMD® or NVIDIA® graphics cards may also be compatible with COMSOL Multiphysics. Graphics cards that belong to the same model series as one of the cards listed above are more likely to be compatible with COMSOL Multiphysics.
*For hardware acceleration on Linux, use proprietary drivers from you graphics card vendor, such as NVIDIA or AMD, otherwise use COMSOL software rendering. The Nouveau video driver is only supported for software rendering.