OS/Software requirements:

1. Unix OS (a handful of rudimentary POSIX functions are the essential requirement)
2. C compiler (conformant with C89 standard, i.e. more recent than K&R)
3. An implementation of MPI version 1.1 for parallel processing (LAM/MPI works on wide range of most common systems)
4. An implementation of the BLAS standard (a reference implementation works but is rather slow; a better variant is included in the distribution)

Hardware specifications:

1) A number of recent general purpose CPUs (examples include Intel Pentium I/II/III/4, Intel Itanium, AMD, Sparc II/III, HP PA-8000, IBM Power2/Power3/Power4, SGI Octane R12000, Compaq/DEC Alpha 21164/21264)
2) A minimum of 32 Mbytes of memory per CPU
3) ~10 Mbytes of networked disk space (for the binaries)
4) Interconnect for parallel processing (Ethernet 100Mbits/s is a sensible minimum but a dedicated communication fabric is suggested)